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Our Little Finnish Cousin 


THE 

Little Cousin Series 

(trade mark) 

Each volume illustrated with six or more full page plates in 
tint. Cloth, 12mo, with decorative cover 
per volume, 60 cents 


LIST OF TITLES 

By Mary Hazelton Wade, Luna May Innes, 
Blanche McManus, Clara V. Winlow, 
Florence E. Mendel and Others 


Our Little African Cousin 
Our Little Alaskan Cousin 
Our Little Arabian Cousin 
Our Little Argentine Cousin 
Our Little Armenian Cousin 
Our Little Australian Cousin 
Our Little Austrian Cousin 
Our Little Belgian Cousin 
Our Little Bohemian Cousin 
Our Little Boer Cousin 
Our Little Brazilian Cousin 
Our Little Bulgarian Cousin 
Our Little Canadian Cousin 
of the Maritime Provinces 
Our Little Chinese Cousin 
Our Little Cossack Cousin 
Our Little Cuban Cousin 
Our Little Danish Cousin 
Our Little Dutch Cousin 
Our Little Egyptian Cousin 
Our Little English Cousin 
Our Little Eskimo Cousin 
Our Little Finnish Cousin 
Our Little French Cousin 
Our Little German Cousin 
Our Little Grecian Cousin 
Our Little Hawaiian Cousin 

THE PAGE 

53 Beacon Street, 


Our Little Hindu Cousin 
Our Little Hungarian Cousin 
Our Little Indian Cousin 
Our Little Irish Cousin 
Our Little Italian Cousin 
Our Little Japanese Cousin 
Our Little Jewish Cousin 
Our Little Korean Cousin 
Our Little Malayan (Brown) 
Cousin 

Our Little Mexican Cousin 
Our Little Norwegian Cousin 
Our Little Panama Cousin 
Our Little Persian Cousin 
Our Little Philippine Cousin 
Our Little Polish Cousin 
Our Little Porto Rican Cousin 
Our Little Portuguese Cousin 
Our Little Roumanian Cousin 
Our Little Russian Cousin 
Our Little Scotch Cousin 
Our Little Servian Cousin 
Our Little Siamese Cousin 
Our Little Spanish Cousin 
Our Little Swedish Cousin 
Our Little Swiss Cousin 
Our Little Turkish Cousin 

COMPANY 

Boston, Mass. 






































































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“ THE REINDEER SUDDENLY SWERVED IN SUCH A WAY THAT 

juhani was pitched out.” (See page 40) 




Our Little 


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By 

Clara Vostrovsky Winlow 

Author of 

“Our Little Roumanian Cousin,” “Our Little 
Bohemian Cousin,” “Our Little 
Bulgarian Cousin. * * 


Illustrated by 

Harriet O’Brien 


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4*44 44*$* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4 s 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4*^ 


Boston 

The Page Company 

MDCCCCXVIII 


Copyright, 1918 
By The Page Company 


All rights reserved 


First Impression, April, 1918 


JUN -4 1918 


©CLA497716 


PREFACE 


Finland is one of the little countries in 
whose struggles for greater freedom the world 
is interested to-day. It is situated on the 
northeast shore of the Baltic Sea, and is 
bounded by Russia, Norway and Sweden, the 
Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. A 
maze of rocks and small, pine-covered islands 
form a ring around the coast. The art of navi- 
gating between these requires much skill and 
long apprenticeship, so that it is no wonder that 
Finland, among other things, is noted for her 
pilots. 

“ Forest, rock, and water ” is the way in 
which one writer describes Finland. This lit- 
tle country, known all over the world for its 
progressive ideas, is thinly inhabited, having 


v 


VI 


Preface 


only one city, the capital Helsingfors, of any 
size. Over eighty-six per cent, of the people 
are Finnish, twelve per cent. Swedish, and the 
rest Russians, Germans, and Lapps. 

Little is known of Finnish history before the 
twelfth century, when King Eric of Sweden in- 
vaded the land to Christianize the inhabitants. 
Swedish settlements followed and Finland be- 
came a province of Sweden. It remained that 
for six hundred years, during which time there 
were constant conflicts between the Russians 
and Swedes for the possession of Finnish ports. 

While Sweden was engaged with Napoleon, 
the Finns, tired of the ceaseless disorder, 
agreed to union with Russia on condition that 
they be assured a certain independence. This 
was conceded, Alexander I, then Tzar of Rus- 
sia, taking oath as Grand Duke of Finland and 
promising to observe the religion of the coun- 
try and all the privileges and rights which it 
had so far enjoyed. This oath was kept more 


Preface 


Vll 


scrupulously than by the last two Swedish mon- 
archs, and cordial relations were established 
between Russia and Finland. The Finnish 
people began to take a more prominent part in 
their own affairs, for up to that time the 
Swedes had had the upper hand everywhere. 
Alexander boasted with some truth that he had 
created a nation. 

In 1863 Tzar Alexander II gave a Repre- 
sentative Constitution to Finland. 

In 1899, the present deposed Russian ruler, 
Nicholas II, was ill-advised enough to issue a 
manifesto suspending the Finnish Constitution. 
Unheeded protests followed, and up to 1904 
there is an unenviable record of oppression and 
suppression on the part of Russia. 

In November, 1906, however, the Tzar was 
compelled to make the concessions that the 
nation demanded. 

During the present world conflict the Finns 
have proclaimed in their Parliament their right 


Preface 


viii 

to absolute independence, and their claim is 
sanctioned by the greatest of the European 
nations, which recognize the Republic of 
Finland. 

C. V. w. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface v 

I A Farm Home ...%... i 
II Sunday 16 

III The End of Autumn 23 

IV Laplanders ........ 38 

V School 51 

VI The December Vacation .... 67 

VII Christmas Week ...... 76 

VIII Summer Time ....... 91 


IX 


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List of Illustrations 

PAGE 

“ The reindeer suddenly swerved in such a way 
that Juhani was pitched out.” (See page 40) 

Frontispiece 

T .ngs tasted so good out of doors ” . .18 

“Juhani was listening to the most marvelous 
tales ” 45 

“ Waving his arms to keep his balance, jumped far 

FORWARD ” 62 

“ She CARRIED OUT A BASKET FILLED WITH CRUMBS AND 

GRAIN ” .76 

“ Wound colored yarn around the rye stalks ” . 95 




Our Little Finnish Cousin 


CHAPTER I 

A FARM HOME 

It was early autumn in the Finland forest 
by the lake. Gold glistened from the under- 
brush, from the great beds of bracken, from the 
shining birches, from the paler aspens, and even 
from the prized rowans and juniper trees. 

On one side where the forest grew thinner, 
there was a glimpse of marshy land where big 
whortleberries grew in profusion. Around 
this marshy spot a tiny path led to a succession 
of fields in some of which were grazing cattle, in 
some, queer tall haystacks, and in two smaller 
ones, grain still uncut. 


i 


2 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

Two children — a boy and a girl — made 
their way from the forest toward the lake, 
their hands tightly clasping birchen baskets 
filled with berries that they had succeeded in 
gathering. Reaching the shore, they silently 
took their places in a small boat moored under 
a clump of trees. Each seized an oar, and 
began to row with experienced measured strokes 
to the other side. 

Both unsmiling faces had the same candid 
capable air, but that was the only resemblance. 
Ten-year-old Juhani was like his father who 
belonged to the Tavastian type of Finn. He 
was pale, with high cheek bones, thin hair, and 
a strong chin that seemed to say: “I won’t 
give in ! I won’t give in ! ” He might have 
been taken for sulky until you met the look of 
sincere inquiry under his well-formed brows. 

Six-year Maja was fairer. She was brown- 
eyed and brown-haired, like her Karelian 
mother who belonged to the other decided type 


A Farm Home 


3 

of Finn. Despite the silent gentleness of her 
face, she looked as if, on occasion, she could 
be high spirited and even gay. 

A little crowd was gathered at the landing 
stage to which they crossed, and more persons 
came hurrying up as a blast was heard from a 
steamer still some distance away on the lake. 
There were other children like themselves with 
baskets of birch, and women with cakes and 
cookies and farm produce for sale. Some of 
these were busily knitting while they waited to 
offer their wares. Most prominent among all 
thus gathered was a rather short, sturdy girl, 
who seemed entirely indifferent to the fact that 
the kerchief tied around her head was not at 
all becoming. This was Hilja, who, although 
only eighteen, already held the important posi- 
tion of pier-master. 

At last, amid much commotion, the steamer 
came up. The passengers stepped ashore and 
bought many of the good things offered. But 


4 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

even when all were sold there was no sign of 
the steamer’s departure. The big stacks of 
wood piled on the wharf, that were to serve 
the steamer for fuel, had first to be carried 
aboard. For this there was help in plenty. 
Men, women, and children were eager to have 
their services accepted. A couple of foreigners 
grew restless at the delay, but no one else be- 
trayed any impatience, having been brought up, 
no doubt, on the Finnish proverb, “ God did 
not create hurry.” 

The pier-master shouted something when it 
was all in, and the steamer, with many toots, 
departed. The people scattered until only 
Juhani and Maja remained to watch a heavily 
laden timber barge go slowly by on its way to 
the coast. Before it passed Juhani had nudged 
Maja to show her the pennies he had earned by 
carrying wood. With the slightest possible 
twinkle of mischief, Maja at first kept her own 
fist tightly closed. “ Oh, show what you 


A Farm Home 5 

have ! ” Juhani exclaimed somewhat contemptu- 
ously, at which Maja opened her hand and 
showed twice as many pennies that her sweet 
face, as well as the nice berries, had brought 
her. 

Juhani showed his surprise by staring and 
staring until Maja closed her hand again, 
explaining half in apology, “ It was from 
the foreigners,’’ and led the way to their 
boat. 

Again they rowed silently over, anchored 
their boat in a little cove, and then walked 
rapidly across the fields. Maja began to hum 
a folk song, to which Juhani soon whistled a 
tune while he kept one hand on a sheathed 
knife, called a pukko, hanging from the belt 
around his waist. It was no wonder he was 
conscious and proud that it hung there. When 
his father had given it to him a few days before, 
he had said, “ You are beginning to do man’s 
work, Juhani, and so I think that you deserve 


6 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

a man’s knife.” Nor was it a cheap knife. 
Its leather sheath was tipped with brass and 
very prettily ornamented with a colored pat- 
tern. 

Both children were barefoot and both walked 
with equal unconcern over stubble and sharp 
stones. At the edge of the last field Maja 
glanced inquiringly at her brother and then 
broke into a run. Juhani did not follow her 
example at first, but, when he did, he easily 
overtook her near a square farmhouse painted 
a bright red, but with doors and windows out- 
lined in white. Against this house, reaching 
from the ground to the black painted roof, 
was a ladder to be used in case of fire. Up 
this Juhani ran, waving his hand to his sister 
when at the top. 

Near this house were three storehouses, one 
for food, one for clothes and one for imple- 
ments. Further away were cow houses, and 
a stable, the loft of which was used for storing 


A Farm Home 


7 

food in winter, and as a bedroom for the maid 
servants in summer. There was also a small 
pig sty built of granite, a stone of which Fin- 
land has so much that it has been said it would 
be possible to rebuild all of London with it 
and still leave the supply apparently undimin- 
ished. Neat, strong fences of slanting wood 
enclosed these buildings. 

Off by itself was an outbuilding more impor- 
tant in a way than any of these, the bath-house, 
which in Finland is never missing. 

An older girl of about fourteen with a blue 
kerchief on her head was drawing water from 
a well near the kitchen door. As she emptied 
the bucket made of a pine trunk and attached 
to a long pole weighted at the end, she called 
to Juhani, who had just jumped from the 
ladder : “ Hurry ! The pastor has come to 

stay till we go to church to-morrow and he 
wants to ask you some Bible questions.” 

Without waiting for her, Juhani followed 


8 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

Maja, who had already entered the kitchen 
bright with shining copper, stopping first, how- 
ever, to wipe his feet on a mat made of pine 
branches laid one above another. 

This kitchen led directly into a pleasant 
living-room, with a tall china tiled stove, some 
chairs, a big sofa, a table, and a carved cup- 
board. Here were several odd beds too, that 
did not look like beds at all. They were beds 
shut up for the day. At night they would be 
pulled open. A small loom stood in one corner. 
Strips of home-made carpet were laid on the 
yellow painted floor. 

On one wall hung a picture which had lately 
had a peculiar fascination for Maja. It repre- 
sented Katrine Mansdottir, a beautiful peasant 
woman with a sad romantic history. She lived 
when Finland was under Swedish rule. King 
Eric the Fourteenth had been captivated by her 
winsomeness when he first saw her selling fruit 
on the street. He had her taken to his castle 


A Farm Home 


9 

and educated her like a princess. When she 
was old enough he married her, much to the 
dissatisfaction of his conservative courtiers. 
Later the King was deposed and cast into 
prison. Here his wife showed her gratitude 
for all that he had done for her, sharing his 
imprisonment and ministering to him until his 
death. Then she renounced her crown and 
retired to live among the loyal Finns who loved 
her for the friendship that she had always 
shown them. 

On the most comfortable chair in the room 
sat the pastor, a man who looked so serious 
that one wondered if he ever smiled. No one 
who knew his duties and responsibilities could 
wonder at this. Among them were visiting the 
widely scattered members of his parish, com- 
forting them in sorrow and distress, helping 
them with advice when needed. Just outside 
the nearest village, on the other side of the 
lake, he had a little patch of land of his own 


10 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

which he cultivated when he could, to help 
out his slender salary. 

The children greeted the pastor like an old 
friend, and seating themselves sedately on 
chairs opposite him stiffened up in anticipation 
of the questions that he would ask them. 

Around four o’clock everything in the room 
became evening colored, and the mother came 
in and invited all into the kitchen for dinner. 
There was an abundance of simple food, — 
salt fish, meat and potatoes, hard rye bread, 
mead and coffee, of which latter even little 
Maja drank her share. 

The first part of the meal made one think of 
a Quaker meeting, it was so very quiet; but 
after the mead had been passed around and the 
coffee poured, a sparkle came to the eyes of all, 
and even the pastor’s face took on a genial glow 
as, prompted by kind inquiries, he related some 
of his recent experiences. 

“You know poor old Yrjo (George),” he 


A Farm Home 


ll 


said, “ who is now one of my people. Well, 
he’s trying to learn to read and write and having 
a hard time doing it. You see, he never had a 
chance earlier in life, for he used to live way up 
north on the outskirts of Lapland. He is 
doing all this because — well, I guess you can 
guess why — . Yes, he wants to be married, 
and you know how strict our law is that no pas- 
tor shall marry men or women unless they know 
how to read and write. I think he’ll learn, for 
he’s dogged. He’s already built himself a 
shack on my grounds not to waste time in com- 
ing and going. When I told him this morning 
that he was making progress he was as de- 
lighted as a child.” 

Then he told of a recent visit to a big dairy 
farm, of the long low buildings with ice 
chambers here and there. “ It was a great 
pleasure,” he said, “ to see how neatly every- 
thing is kept. All the floors and walls are of 
blue and white tile, and the windows of stained 


12 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

glass — a pretty sight. I can’t forget the rows 
of shelves with their big earthenware vessels 
of rich-looking milk and cream. In one room 
women dressed in white were putting up butter 
for export. I agree with those who think that 
dairying is going to grow in importance here. 
It certainly seems to pay our farmers better 
than farming.” 

“ I am going to be a dairy man,” said Juhani. 

“ And I am going to a University and be an 
architect,” piped in little Maja quite as de- 
cidedly. 

At this the family laughed, but the pastor 
remarked seriously, “It’s well to make plans 
early. There are many women who are suc- 
ceeding in architecture, little Maja.” 

“ Yes,” remarked the mother, “ and Maja 
has an aunt in Helsingfors who is among the 
number.” 

As it was Saturday night the usual prepara- 
tions had been made for a family bath, and the 


A Farm Home 


13 

kindly pastor who was not considered an out- 
sider was invited to share in it as a matter of 
course. Every one seemed to look to this bath 
as a great pleasure. After the pastor had ac- 
cepted, Juhani, with face glowing, ran at once 
to show the bath whisks that he had himself 
made. 

“ I made a lot of them in the summer,” he 
explained, “ for then the leaves are soft.” 

“ Go take them to the bath house and steep 
them in hot water,” said his father, “ and see 
that the maids have not forgotten to strew fresh 
straw on the floor.” 

“ May I not get ready first, ” asked Juhani. 
And when his father nodded, he slipped off his 
clothes and ran naked to where the bath house 
stood alone not far from the lake. 

The little structure was made of pine logs 
on a foundation of moss and stones. The roof 
was thatched. Over the door the farmer had 
carved the Finnish proverb : “ The Church 


14 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

and the Sauna (Bath-house) are holy places.” 
Within, on one side, was a stone oven, while 
opposite this was a series of wooden steps to 
the ceiling. These were covered with straw. 

When Juhani entered, an old woman servant 
was already there poking at the big fire. Now 
and then she threw on water so that it was quite 
steamy when the other members of the family 
came trooping in. Juhani at once seized Maja 
around the waist, all his shyness evidently left 
outside, and twirled her around until she 
shouted for him to stop. 

It grew hotter and hotter in the room and 
more and more steamy as the different members 
climbed on the step-like platforms and beat 
themselves with the birch twigs which now gave 
forth a pleasant fragrance. 

Juhani and Maja had also mounted the steps, 
but every once in a while they would jump down 
and try to whip each other on the back and legs. 

When all had perspired enough, they took 


A Farm Home 


15 

turns in sitting on a chair and letting the old 
woman give each a quick massage and a wash 
down with cold water. Then oh, what a race 
there was for the lake, into which all plunged 
with shouts of laughter! Then out again and 
a race for home. Maja somehow got a big 
start and came in a foot ahead of her brother 
who, when he saw what she was after, almost 
tumbled over her in his eagerness to win. 


CHAPTER II 


SUNDAY 

Preparations for going to church next 
morning were soon made. Some things that 
we should consider unusual were taken, includ- 
ing a big lunch and a couple of hammocks. 
Two row boats carried the party some distance 
down the lake to a much larger boat, called the 
Church Boat. It was already half filled. 
After a short wait, other peasants arrived, 
greeted their friends soberly and sat down. 

The men had on somber-looking suits, with 
big felt hats and high boots. The women’s 
costumes varied, although the majority had 
on black shapeless jackets with a white kerchief 
crossed under the chin; some, however, had on 
bright bodices, embroidered aprons, and blue 
or crimson kerchiefs. Most of the women 
16 


Sunday 17 

carried their prayer-books wrapped in white 
handkerchiefs. When all were seated, the 
young women, as well as the young men, seized 
hold of the oars and the boat left the pier. 

It was a slow journey, stops being made at 
a few places where people stood waiting. It 
was rather solemn, too; there was no idle 
chatter; at the minister’s suggestion, however, 
hymns were sung. 

The Lutheran Church, at which the party at 
last arrived, was a plain building both inside 
and out. It was built entirely of timber and 
had a separate bell tower. As the people 
walked in, the women all took their places on 
one side, the men on the other. 

The services lasted until three in the after- 
rioon. Maja yawned and almost put herself 
asleep counting the stitches in the woman’s 
jacket in front of her. But when it was all 
over and the people filed out of the building, 
they seemed to leave some of their somberness 


18 Our Little Finnish Cousin 


there. They gathered in groups and together 
departed either for a swim in the lake or with 
hammocks and lunches for a picnic in the silent 
woods. 

Things tasted so good out of doors that 
Maja and Juhani smiled much at each other, al- 
though Juhani would always put on a particu- 
larly serious look afterwards. Then the two 
swung on one of the hammocks and also on a 
huge swing near the Church. “ Come on for 
a ramble with us in the woods,” two passing 
children of their own age called to them. 
“ Come,” said Maja, taking hold of Juhani’s 
hand, and away they went over the greenish 
gray mosses through the rosy and pale yellow 
underbrush. There were bright red cranber- 
ries here and there with which they filled their 
pockets as they discussed, not church affairs, 
but wood nymphs, the kind ugly tomtar or 
brownies, and the little gray man in the woods 
who has a fiery tail. 



a 


99 


THINGS TASTED SO GOOD OUT OF DOORS 



Sunday 19 

Suddenly Maja stopped, looking so scared 
that all followed her example. “ What is it? ” 
asked her brother. 

“A brownie!” Maja could hardly make 
herself heard. 

The boys laughed at her as they rushed for- 
ward and made a big brown squirrel scamper 
away into the branches of a tree. 

“ Nevertheless I’d like to believe that there 
were brownies around,” Juhani confessed when 
the girls had come up. “ Do you know that 
they are so kind that on Christmas they bring 
a gift to every animal that lives near? ” 

The others nodded. “ I’d rather see one 
than a wood nymph,” one of them, declared. 
“ I’d be afraid of her. My! but she must be 
ugly from behind if she’s really hollow there 
as they say. She’s apt to do you harm too, if 
you see her from the back.” 

By this time they had reached a little one- 
room hut evidently deserted, for the door 


20 Our Little Finnish Cousin 


swung on only one hinge. Before they peeked 
in, Juhani, with a curious look on his face, 
cautioned each to say “ Good Day to all here ” 
on entering even if they saw no one, for a 
Tomty might be hidden in some corner. 

It was a very old type of house. The upper 
half of the walls were stained black. There 
was a big fire place but no chimney, the smoke 
having evidently been allowed to escape through 
a hole in the roof. 

A long thin piece of resinous wood was still 
fastened to one wall. This was called a pare y 
and when lit served instead of lamp or candle. 

There was a small clearing around the house, 
and half buried in leaves near the door was 
an old-time harrow that had once been formed 
from a bundle of stout fir top branches. 

Later they paused to ask for a drink of water 
at a small two-room cottage of unhewn, un- 
painted wood surrounded by a little pasture but 
with no garden or other sign of cultivation 


Sunday 21 

around, nothing but the vast impressive forest. 
A savage-looking dog that looked as if it might 
have been crossed with a fox, snarled at them 
but was called away by a very old woman who 
explained that she was there alone, her son 
having lately gone to a timber camp. “ He’ll 
come back with enough money,” she added with 
a trembling voice, “ to see us through the winter, 
which is going to be a hard one.” 

“Why do you say that, Granny?” asked 
Juhani. 

“ Couldn’t you see it for yourself,” the old 
woman returned rather sharply, “ by the great 
number of berries? ” 

“ Are you not lonely here? ” Maja inquired 
with sympathy. 

“ Aye, lonely,” repeated the woman, “ but 
contented too, for have I not the forest with 
me day and night and is it not a part of my 
very soul? ” 

A long drawn whistle here made the children 


22 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

realize that the church parties were breaking 
up and that they must make haste to return, 
so thanking the old woman they raced back 
apparently as fresh as if they had not already 
had a long tramp. Where the 'forest was 
thickest it was quite dark. “ If it gets any 
darker,” said Maja, “ we’ll have to stop and 
pray to the Twilight Maiden to spin for us a 
thread of gold to lead us safely home.” 

“ There are also others to help us,” said 
Juhani, and half playfully he called on all the 
woodland fairy folk whose names are found 
in the great Finland epic, “ The Kalevak ” : 
on Mielikki, hostess of the forest; Tuometar f 
nymph of the bird cherry; Katejatar , nymph of 
the juniper; Pillajatar, nymph of the mountain 
ash; Matka-Teppo, god of the road; Honqatar, 
ruler of the pines; Sinetar f that beauteous elf 
who paints the flowers the blue of the sky, and 
on Sotka’ s daughter who protects wild game 
from harm. 


CHAPTER III 


THE END OF AUTUMN 

The next day Maja had to stay in the house 
to help while her mother and sister baked, for 
they were to have a talko, that is, neighbors 
had been invited over to help with the last of 
the harvesting. “ Have lots of good things to 
eat,” Juhani called as he followed his father 
out to help in one of the fields. Here a num- 
ber of peasants were driving long poles into 
the ground at regular intervals; to these they 
fastened eight outstretched arms, the ends of 
which were curved upwards. On these arms 
hay that had been cut with sickles was carefully 
arranged that it might dry. 

While this was being done, the grain that 
had been dried some time before was being 


23 


24 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

baked in an outside oven or kiln not far from 
the hay barn, a big long building with a corru- 
gated roof. 

This baking makes the Finnish grain in de- 
mand for seed in other countries, for it drives 
away the damp and kills all insects that might 
injure the germ. 

By evening all the work was finished, and the 
merry group of peasant men and women who 
had given their help trooped, singing, to the 
house. A big supper awaited them and as they 
sat down, the men on one side of the table, the 
women on the other, all showed the splendid 
appetites which the work in the fields had given 
them. 

As soon as the supper was over, the floor 
was cleared, and all joined in dancing the 
national dance, called the jenka, during which 
a warmth of feeling was displayed that belied 
their reputation for being stolid, and that no 
stranger, who might have seen the men and 


The End of Autumn 25 

women on their way to church the day before, 
would have believed possible. 

After this the weather grew less pleasant; 
the sky was often dull and overcast; cold raw 
winds began to blow and there was much fog 
and sleet. During this time there was a certain 
flurry in the farm house, for Juhani, young 
as he was, had gained his father’s permission 
to accompany an uncle to a lumber camp some 
distance to the north. 

At the first fall of snow they left. It was 
a long drive they had, one that grew colder 
after the middle of the day. The air, which 
was very still, had a frostiness to it that nipped 
Juhani’s nose and face. But neither he nor 
his uncle grumbled. The faces of both had a 
peculiarly similar look of patient endurance. 
It was not until toward evening that they came 
to a rolling swampy country where a big body 
of woodmen were already at work at the rude 
shelters that were to form the camp. For 


26 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

one night a batch of new men had to lie around 
the camp fire, turning one side, then the other 
to the heat, for there were not enough huts 
yet built. 

Juhani was put to work almost at once in 
picking up chips and doing all sorts of odds 
and ends, for he had only been allowed to go 
on condition that he was willing to make him- 
self useful. Later he was regularly sent alone 
twice a week through the forest to a peasant 
farm for milk and eggs. The coming and 
going for these took all of a day. Sometimes 
the forest was dark and silent; at other times 
birds called to him, and wild animals, strangely 
tame, would peep out from the snow-covered 
brush at him. 

Once a merry squirrel enticed him into an 
old overgrown path. He continued to follow 
it even after he had lost track of the squirrel 
until he came to two branches, one of which he 
decided led in the direction of his destination. 


The End of Autumn 27 

After wandering about for an hour and 
finding that the trees and the brush were grow- 
ing denser and denser he grew somewhat 
alarmed and tried to retrace his steps. 

He soon found that this was impossible. 
Here it occurred to him that if he could get to 
the top of a tree he might have a better idea 
of where he was and what to do. So drop- 
ping his pail, he scrambled up the nearest 
willow. This was not high enough to give 
much of an outlook, and, getting down again, 
he cast longing eyes on a tall fir with no low 
branches. 

With difficulty he dragged a small uprooted 
juniper to it and placing it against the trunk, 
with its help he managed to reach the lowest 
branch. It was then an easy task to climb to 
the top of the tree. 

There was a very fair outlook from the top 
but no sign of the farmhouse for which he 
was bound. There was one thing comforting 


28 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

however. It was that at some distance away 
something glittered like water. 

With a grunt Juhani let himself down and 
then stood in thought. Only for a moment did 
he allow himself to do this. He was too well 
aware of the shortness of the days to dally. 
Drawing his pukko (knife) he began to hew 
his way through the thick underbrush, over the 
springy soil, in the direction of what he knew 
must be the lake. 

Now and then fallen tree trunks had to be 
scaled. Twice his feet caught in tangled vines 
and threw him. Several times he had to take 
the time to climb trees to assure himself that 
he was going in the right direction. And all 
the time he had the consciousness that night 
was descending. 

It was already dusk when he reached the 
lake where, to his great relief, he recognized the 
spot by means of a big bowlder as being within 
half a mile of camp. 


The End of Autumn 29 

He saw, however, that in a very few minutes 
it would be too dark to go further. The only 
thing to do was to wait until the moon rose. 
So gathering together as much of the brush as 
he could, he started it burning and then lay 
down before it to try to get a little rest. 

Despite the fire, which continually had to be 
replenished, it was very cold and he found it 
necessary to turn constantly first one side, then 
the other towards the flames to be at all com- 
fortable. 

At last the fire went out and there was noth- 
ing left for Juhani to do except sit with his back 
to the trunk of a nearby tree and wait. When 
the moon came out, it was a very stiff boy who 
arose and followed stumblingly the banks of 
the lake to camp. 

Here he found a group of men with his 
Uncle in the lead, getting ready to start a hunt 
for him. As soon as he had stammered out 
his story to his Uncle the latter shook him 


30 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

angrily by the shoulder and ordered him to bed. 
“ Don’t you ever try anything of the kind again ; 
at least not while you are on an errand for 
me,” he called after him. And Juhani never 
did. 

The boy won the favor of a driver of one 
of the short sledges on which the cut-down 
trees, rough hewn with axes and with the bark 
peeled off, were drawn, and he sometimes had 
a ride with him to the lake where men stalked 
the logs on the banks. On these trips, although 
he said nothing, he hardly knew whether he 
admired most how the driver guided the horses 
over the difficult ground or the intelligence of 
the alert little Finnish horses themselves. 

Sometimes, instead of these trips, he had an 
opportunity to watch the actual cutting down 
of the trees. He would sometimes quiver in 
sympathy as a tree quivered before dashing 
down against the other trees, perhaps remain- 
ing suspended a moment, then coming with a 


The End of Autumn 31 

crash to the ground and raising a flurry of 
snow. 

Once a tree was down it was ready to be 
cleared of branches and then sawed into logs. 

In the evening the spring journey of the 
logs, when they would be floated down the lake 
and out to sea, was often discussed. Juhani 
learned how men with long hooks were sta- 
tioned at the narrow or rocky places on the 
water to keep the logs from getting blocked. 
This was difficult and often dangerous. Some- 
times it led to loss of life. 

While on the lake, the logs would be col- 
lected and chained together to form great rafts. 
Several of these would be fastened behind each 
other and drawn by a small tug. On these 
rafts the men would build themselves little 
huts on which they would live, for it is slow 
work to get the logs from the forests to the 
mills. Indeed it almost always takes one or 
two summers at least. 


32 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

Sometimes instead of these stories, the men 
would sing rough songs that sounded out there 
in the wilds more weird and melancholy than 
they really were. Sometimes they discussed 
the future of Finland. There was one fellow 
among them to whom Juhani loved to listen. 
He remembered long the man’s reply to a par- 
ticularly pessimistic statement. “ Our future 
depends on ourselves. Have we not the sea? 
Does it not stand for power and freedom? 
Shame, I say, on those who do not see it ! ” 

Things in camp went along quietly enough 
until near the end of the season, when two of 
the men had a fight which might have ended 
seriously had they not been separated in time, 
for both had drawn their pukkos (knives). 

Before Juhani left for home the driver in- 
vited him to come on a trip much further east 
than they were stationed. His uncle consented. 
It gave Juhani an opportunity to see the very 
primitive and wasteful agricultural methods 


The End of Autumn 33 

that are still practiced in Finland in out-of- 
the-way places, that of burning down the forest 
to fertilize the land. 

They spent the first night with the owner of 
a place on which this was done. He did his 
best to entertain them well. 

After they had had supper the family gath- 
ered around the big rude fireplace, and while 
the fire crackled and a drink of some kind was 
passed around the talk drifted to the future 
prospects of the country. Then the peasant 
proprietor told of the time when the deposed 
Tzar of Russia, Nicholas II, through the 
Manifesto of February fifteenth, 1899, had 
tried to deprive Finland of most of her inde- 
pendence. “ I heard through my young son 
who had just returned from further South, that 
signatures for a petition to the Tzar were being 
sought. ‘ They shall not lack mine,’ I told my 
wife. It was bitterly cold even for one used 
to severe months of blinding snow, but I put on 


34 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

my skis and made my way through the dense 
forest in the face of a harsh wind, to the nearest 
settlement. Here I learned that a messenger 
gathering signatures had just left. Without 
stopping for food or drink, I followed the 
direction he had taken through a frozen swamp 
and came up with him just before nightfall. 
And there, with nothing to be seen but snow 
around us, I signed the paper and returned to 
the settlement while he went on for another 
hour to the neighboring hamlet.” 

“ I know of a case to match that somewhat,” 
said the driver. “ After the Tzar’s Mani- 
festo, a well-to-do farmer, who lived too far 
away to go to Helsingfors, wrote a petition him- 
self to the Tzar, had it signed by the family, 
servants and those nearest, and then forwarded 
it.” 

Here the old grandmother, an intelligent 
looking peasant woman, with a brown plaid 
shawl tightly pinned around her neck, took 


The End of Autumn 35 

the lead in the conversation, harking back to 
older times when she had known Elias Lonnrot 
who made the folk songs he gathered into a 
whole as the great Finnish epic, the “ Kale- 
vala.” This was evidently a favorite subject 
with her. “ I was only a young girl,” she said, 
11 when he came as a physician to Kajana, which 
is a place of which it was then said there were 
two streets, ‘ Along one go pigs when it’s wet, 
along the other the inhabitants when it’s dry.’ 
Lonnrot was a strong fine fellow, very gentle. 
People used to say he would cry if he happened 
to kill a fly. He was rather careless about his 
clothes. I met him one day just as he was 
starting on one of his searches for folk songs. 
He was dressed like a peasant, with a short 
pipe in his mouth and a staff in his hand. A 
small flute hung from his button-hole, while a 
valise and gun were slung on his back. After 
he came back we spoke of nothing for weeks ex- 
cept his adventures. In one place he was taken 


36 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

for a tramp and found it impossible to secure 
any sort of vehicle to take him on his way. In 
another village the people thought him a wiz- 
ard. They wouldn’t give him any food. He 
remembered that an eclipse of the sun would 
take place that day. “ I’ll make the sun die,” 
he said, “ if you don’t attend to my wants.” 
The people laughed and hooted, but when the 
sun actually did disappear they were badly 
frightened and begged him on their knees to 
make it come back and brought him all kinds of 
good things to eat.” 

“ It seems to me,” said her son reflectively, 
“ that Lonnrot published something else besides 
the 4 Kalevala.’ ” 

“ Indeed he did,” said the grandmother 
quickly, proud of her knowledge, “ why, I’ve 
taught you many a verse given in the Kantele- 
taar (the Daughter of the Kantele). It con- 
tains about seven hundred ancient songs and 
ballads.” 


The End of Autumn 37 

Juhani and the driver were somewhat sur- 
prised at hearing all this at such a far off place. 
They would have gladly continued the conver- 
sation had it not been necessary to retire early 
to be prepared for the journey to the north on 
the morrow. 


CHAPTER IV 


LAPLANDERS 

A heavy snow fell during the night. After 
they had had breakfast, Juhani and the driver 
found two pulkas (boat shaped sleighs) await- 
ing them. To each of these there was har- 
nessed reindeer of a dark gray color, with huge 
branching antlers. There was only one rein 
for each of those in the pulkas to hold. 

“ Notice the reindeer’s foot,” Juhani’s com- 
panion bade him. “ See how broad and flexible 
it is. It is divided, too, and so spreads when it 
touches the snow.” 

“ How can I get the reindeer to stop ? ” asked 
Juhani anxiously. 

“ Well, if you really need to stop and he re- 
fuses,” replied the driver, “ all you have to do 
is to fall out.” 


3S 


Laplanders 39 

Their host wrapped furs around them as each 
took his place in one of the sleds hardly big 
enough to hold even one person. Then while 
his wife held the deer, the farmer showed 
Juhani how to wrap the rein properly around 
his wrist. This being managed, the wife let 
go, and they were off. 

The country through which they now passed 
was tiresomely flat and covered with small 
birch and fir trees. After they had gone some 
distance it began to snow in thick cloud-like 
masses and the wind began to blow the snow 
about as if in violent play. Juhani did very 
well considering that this was his first reindeer 
ride. He managed to stay in the sled even 
when the reindeer bumped it hard against the 
trees. Fortunately the deep furrows in the 
road helped steady the sleighs, and Juhani be- 
gan to feel proud of himself when finally the 
Lapp settlement came into view. Whether it 
was the sight of it or something else, Juhani did 


40 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

not know, but just then the reindeer suddenly 
swerved in such a way that Juhani was pitched 
out. He arose quickly and called to the rein- 
deer to stop, but in vain. His companion was 
far ahead and so, somewhat angry and morti- 
fied, he made his way as best he could on foot 
the short distance still remaining. 

These Lapp settlements in Northern Finland 
are few in number. It is said that there are 
not more than two thousand Lapps in Finland. 
The Finnish word Lapp or Lappu means Land- 
End folk. The Lapps use another name for 
themselves; it is Samelats and for their coun- 
try, Same. Many of the Lapps are fisher- 
men, but there are also forest and mountain 
Lapps. 

One wonders how they could get along with- 
out the reindeer, which furnishes them with 
milk, meat, and even clothing, besides drawing 
their sledges. Because of these animals the 
Lapps prefer the open country where reindeer 


Laplanders 41 

moss is plentiful. When it is not found, the 
spruce tree serves as a substitute, and a very 
extravagant one, for nearly a hundred trees are t 
needed yearly for one reindeer. 

When Juhani came up, he found the whole 
village surrounding his friend, who laughing, 
advanced with a muscular, well-proportioned 
Lapp to him. The Lapp shook his hand and 
assured him gravely that no one thought the 
worse of him for the mishap. 

This Lapp was dressed in a loose reindeer 
costume reaching below the knees and fitting 
closely about the throat. It was adorned with 
gay trimmings of blue and scarlet and yellow. 
On his feet were soft, pliable skin boots. 

He led them to the largest hut. Juhani 
noticed the quarters of frozen reindeer meat 
hanging from the branches of the trees near it 
and also the buckets full of frozen reindeer 
milk. 

When they had entered, they seated them- 


42 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

selves on the floor on skins and waited while 
snow was brought in, placed in a kettle over the 
fire, melted, and coffee made. This and food 
was soon placed before them. The latter con- 
sisted of reindeer meat, a kind of rye and barley 
bread, milk and a strong oily cheese. It tasted 
very good to Juhani after his cold walk. When 
he had eaten enough to satisfy himself as well 
as his hospitable hosts, he was shyly invited to 
join in an outside game with a group of dark- 
skinned children with straight silky brown hair, 
broad flat faces and noses, and very round eyes 
compared to their elders. These children 
looked like funny little bears, wrapped as they 
were in fur. 

Two of the boys carried wooden sticks which 
they drove into the snow. These were made 
so that a stone could rest on the top. Each 
child tried his best to see how many of these 
he could knock off with snowballs in a given 
time. 


Laplanders 43 

Juhani found himself far behind his little 
friends. He was not so good a shot, and he 
lacked their quickness in making the balls. 
But he kept on trying. 

In the afternoon when it grew too dark and 
cold to remain longer out of doors (it was 
thirty degrees below zero) , two of the children 
went with Juhani into the unventilated hut, and 
sitting down near the fire took out their knives 
and began to carve. Juhani watched the older 
of the two, a boy about his own age, and soon 
saw that he was making a running reindeer on 
the handle of a knife. Great was his surprise 
next morning to have this presented him. The 
mother, in the meantime, had just laid down 
some reindeer intestines that she was making 
into gloves. 

“How many reindeer have you?” Juhani 
asked the Lapp boy. 

“ Oh, nearly a thousand,” the latter answered 
carelessly. 


44 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

“ What a number of uses you put them to! 
I wish you would tell me all of them.” 

The Lapp boy smiled. “ To tell all would 
take me all day. I will tell you a few though. 
We make butter and cheese from their milk, 
eat their flesh as food, make our beds and tents, 
of their skins; their tendons give us our thread 
and many of our eating utensils are made out 
of their antlers.” 

“ It must be much trouble to milk the rein- 
deer every day,” Juhani remarked. 

“ But we don’t milk them every day,” the 
Lapp boy quickly put in. “ Only about twice 
a week. Oftener it would certainly be much 
trouble.” 

Juhani wanted to know still more. “ Since 
the reindeer are loose, how can they find food 
when the ground it covered with snow several 
feet deep?” he asked. 

“ They can smell it,” returned the Lapp. 
“ They never make a mistake. As soon as they 



JUHANI WAS LISTENING TO THE MOST MARVELOUS TALES 





Laplanders 45 

smell it, they scrape at the snow with their feet 
and nose until they get to it.” 

After another meal all gathered still closer 
to the log fire to listen to news of the outside 
world. For a long time the woodman talked, 
and then, growing tired, he begged the Lapp 
mother to tell some stories. 

This she did in the Finnish language, which, 
like all the rest of her family, she spoke well. 
Soon Juhani was listening to the most marvel- 
ous tales, of giants as big as mountains with 
one enormous eye, of ugly witches that fly about 
like bats at night, and of frightful goblins that 
do much harm. f Then, changing her tone, she 
softly told the story of the goddess, Nyavvinna , 
the kindly daughter of the Sun, a being who 
first caught and tamed the reindeer and gave 
them to the Lapps for their comfort and joy. 

“Will you tell our fortune?” asked 'the 
woodman driver, eying her somewhat askance, 
when she had stopped. She smiled good 


46 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

naturedly at him, and going to a rude cabinet 
took from it a kind of drum by means of which 
she foretold a pleasant return journey on the 
morrow. 

Juhani watched her with simple curiosity; his 
companion, however, was plainly uneasy, and 
when they were alone for a minute before lying 
down to sleep, he whispered, “ Awfully uncanny 
folks, these Lapps are.” 

The next morning, too, despite the kindly 
parting, it was plain to Juhani that he was glad 
to get away. They had another exhilarating 
ride behind the reindeer. It had a delightful 
tang to it, a trace of wildness, to which some- 
thing, even in Juhani’s stolid nature, responded. 

When they had left their sleds at the home 
of their Finnish friends the driver grew talk- 
ative and told Juhani many stories of other 
trips to Lapland, one the summer before to this 
same family. He laughed when he thought of 
the children. “ They would have had a pleas- 


Laplanders 47 

ant time gathering berries,” he said, “ had it 
not been for the mosquitoes. There were so 
many of these that they had to wear a sort of 
mosquito net fastened around the waist. 
When they tore these or objected too much, 
their mother rubbed tar all over their hands 
and faces. My ! but they did look funny then,” 
and he laughed so heartily that Juhani could not 
help but join him. 

The man had many other interesting things 
to tell, for his experiences had been varied. 
Among other things he explained the old system 
still in use in parts of Finland of getting tar, 
an important Finnish industry. 

“ Those are line tar trees,” he said, when 
they had come to a clump of fir and larch. 
“ Nothing better. Do you know how they 
work the thing? Well, the wood, after being 
cut, is piled high on a big platform that slopes 
from all sides to the center where there is an 
opening into a vat underneath. This pile is 


48 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

covered over with a thick layer of earth and 
grass and then lit from below. It smolders 
for several days until the pile sinks and a flame 
springs up. When the tar begins to flow it 
is caught in barrels. Shafts are afterwards 
attached to these barrels and they are then 
drawn by horses to the nearest water and loaded 
on boats for the coast. 

“ These boats are built to shoot the rapids. 
There is no iron used in them, the fir planks 
being bound together with wooden fibers. 
They don’t weigh much so that they give in to 
slight shocks. Wood only three-fourths of an 
inch thick separates one from the water. The 
boats are about thirty by three feet, very long 
and narrow, you see, yet big enough to hold 
about twenty barrels, with high sides to keep 
out the foam. 

“ I tell you it takes skill and nerve to steer 
one of these boats. The pilots have to have a 
license. Besides the pilot, the crew generally 


Laplanders 49 

consists of two men or a man and a woman. 
I wasn’t much older than you are now when I 
first went in one. We started at Kajana on the 
Ulea River. My ! how the boat did skim along ! 
It seemed as free as a bird. I held my breath 
most of the time. And what a shock it was 
when it went plunk into the rapids which extend 
many miles! I’ll never forget that first ride 
and the peculiar joy I felt at the danger. The 
last rapids are the Pyhakoski or Sacred Rapids. 
They are twelve miles long, but the trip over 
them took us barely twenty minutes. Here you 
can see the slope of the stream. Every sec- 
ond you go faster. Now you have to avoid a 
whirlpool, now a rock; sometimes both. I 
thought I’d just go deaf from the roar of the 
waters. When we reached smooth water again 
I thought I really was deaf, the silence was so 
overpowering.” 

“ What causes the rapids? ” asked Juhani. 

“ It’s the enormous bowlders,” responded his 


50 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

companion. “ The rapids are mighty pretty. 
I’ve seen our largest waterfall, too. It’s in a 
narrow gorge at Imatra and is sixty feet high. 
How many lakes make it, do you think? They 
say it is a thousand! There are always lots 
of tourists gazing at it and listening to its 
hissing and sputtering and roaring. When 
you first hear it you think there is a storm 
brewing. The spray is tossed thirty feet into 
the air and looks like a mass of rainbows.” 


CHAPTER V 


SCHOOL 

School opened later that year than usuai, 
to last until June. There was to be a vacation 
of three weeks at Christmas with an occasional 
week in between, as well as on special days. 

Two languages were studied by all the chil- 
dren, Finnish and Swedish instead of Finnish 
and Russian as might have been expected from 
Finland’s connection with Russia. The teacher 
told the children that there had been a time 
when all schooling was Swedish, the Finnish 
tongue being considered too uncouth for cul- 
ture. “ Happily,” he would always add, “ that 
time is past. It was unjust, for eighty-six per 
cent of the inhabitants are Finns. We are now 
fully awake.” All the children had manual 
training, the girls being taught cooking, sewing 
Si 


52 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

and darning, the boys woodwork and carpentry. 
The schoolhouse was surrounded by trees, and 
once a week, at least, the teacher talked of the 
necessity of conserving them. 

The teacher lived near the school in a fur- 
nished house provided by the country people. 
Around it was enough grazing land for a cow. 
The people saw, too, that he always had a 
sufficient supply of firewood. 

When Maja and Juhani reached the school- 
house on the first day they found all the names 
by which Finland is sometimes known beauti- 
fully written on the blackboard. There were 
“ Strawberry Land,” “ The Land of a Thou- 
sand Lakes,” “ The Land of a Thousand 
Heroes,” “ The Land of a Thousand Isles,” 
“ Marsh Land,” and “ Last Born Daughter of 
the Sea.” “ This last name our country has 
earned,” the master explained, “ because it is 
in fact still rising out of the sea. As for ‘ Land 
of a Thousand Lakes ’ that should rather be the 


School 


53 

‘ Land of Many Thousand Lakes.’ Let all 
these names merely serve to remind you,” he 
concluded, “ of our duty to our country and our 
determination not to give up that freedom to 
which we feel ourselves entitled.” 

The singing of the Finnish National Hymn 
followed: 

‘Our Land, our Finnish Fatherland! 

Ring out dear name and sound! 

No hill nor dale, nor sea-worn strand, 

Nor lofty mountain whitely grand, 

There is more precious to be found 
That this — our fathers’ ground.” 1 

What Juhani liked best at school that year 
perhaps, was his connection with the School 
Paper. Every Saturday night the higher 
grades, beginning with the one in which he 
now was, met at the schoolhouse to consider 
original contributions to it. Both poetry and 
prose were submitted, and also charades and 
plays. Juhani won some praise for an article 

1 By the Finnish poet, J. L. Runeberg, from the translation 
by Anna Krook. 


54 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

entitled “What We Owe to the Trees.’’ In 
this he spoke of the vast number of trees in 
Finland, but particularly of the uses to which 
they were put. “ The birch is one of our best 
friends. I may not wear birch shoes but many 
peasants do. From its twigs we make brooms 
and bath whisks; from its bark, baskets and 
cups. Its blocks are fed to our locomotives and 
steamboats, and its leaves provide food for our 
cattle. In time of need, when crops fail, we 
even make bread from its bark.” 

Once a month came Guest Day and the chil- 
dren worked hard to do themselves and the 
teacher credit, for then the fathers, mothers 
and friends invited had the right to ask the 
pupils questions. An entertainment was al- 
ways provided; sometimes there were tableaux, 
sometimes a play. These were always fol- 
lowed by refreshments. 

This year, at the first of these nights, Juhani 
was honored by having an introductory recita- 


School 55 

tion from the Finnish poet Topelius. A part 
of it is : 

“ On the world’s farthest peopled strand 
Fate gave to us a Fatherland, 

The last where man his foot has set, 

Daring the North Pole’s threat; 

The last and wildest stretch of earth 
Where Europe’s genius built a hearth; 

The last and farthest flung outpost 
’Gainst night and death and frost.” 

A boy, somewhat younger, followed this with 
a stirring recitation about a thick-headed peas- 
ant hero who, with a small troop, was placed 
to defend a bridge. All but five of this troop 
were killed and the order was given to return. 
The dull peasant leader did not understand and 
remainded at his post alone until help came, 
when he died with a bullet in his heart. 

Then came the most effective part of the 
program. A girl, a pupil in one of the higher 
grades, appeared dressed in the traditional 
dress of a certain portion of Finland, con- 


56 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

sisting of a white loose blouse and short full 
embroidered skirt. There was also a bodice 
and a colored fringed apron. She carried a 
kantele, a stringed instrument whose music is 
of a monotonous and rather melancholy tone. 
This served as the accompaniment to two or 
three folk songs, which she half sang, half re- 
cited in a way that brought forth special 
applause. Coffee and cakes, carefully prepared 
by the members of the Cooking Classes, were 
then served, after which games were played 
and riddles given. Among the latter was 
Maja’s favorite: “What can’t speak yet 
tells the truth? ” Answer. — Scales. 

The next Guest Night was devoted entirely 
to the “ Kalevala,” that wonderful national 
epic made up of the folk songs gathered by 
Elias Lonnrot. It began with a tableau in 
which was seen W ainamoinen, the ancient bard 
of the poem, “ renowned for singing and 
magic”; Ilmarinen , the children’s favorite 


School 57 

hero, a wonderful smith; Kullervo, the wicked 
shepherd, whose hand was against every man’s; 
the jolly, reckless Lemminkainen , and Louhi, 
the mistress of Pohjola (the North) and her 
beautiful, much sought after daughter, the 
Rainbow Maiden. This was followed by the 
reading of a passage describing W dinamoinen 9 s 
playing, 

“ All the birds that fly in mid-air 
Fell like snow flakes from the heavens, 

Flew to hear the minstrel’s playing 
Hear the harp of W dinamoinen.” 

Then came the description of how the eagle, 
the swans, the tiny finches and the fish, and all 
within hearing, were affected by the magic harp 
music. 

The curtain dropped and rolled up again to 
show the meeting of W dinamoinen and his en- 
vious rival Youkahainen, who wishes to fight. 
The tableau changed before the audience into 
an act in which W dinamoinen’ s magic singing 


58 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

causes his rival to sink helplessly into quicksand, 
and in which he refuses every ransom Youka- 
hainen offers, until it comes to Y oukahainen! s 
beauteous sister. 

One of the pupils now read the parts from 
the “ Kalevala ” describing the various tasks 
that the heroes were called on to perform: 
the forging of the magic sampo, a coin, corn, 
and salt mill which could grind out good for- 
tune for whoever had it; the capturing of the 
elk of Hiisi; the bridling of the fire-breathing 
horse, and others. 

Last the teacher himself took the platform 
to call the attention of the audience to the 
beautiful expressions of mother love scattered 
throughout. He showed how even the wise 
W ainamoinen thought first of his mother when 
in distress: 

“ If my mother were now breathing 
She would surely truly tell me 
How I might best bear this trouble,” 


School 59 

and how the mother love of the hot-headed 
Lemminkainen rescues him from death. 

It was not always easy for Juhani and Maja 
to get to school, yet it was rarely that they or 
any of the other pupils were absent. Often the 
only light they had going and coming was that 
thrown up by the snow. Sometimes, however, 
the remarkable Northern Lights (the Aurora 
Borealis) helped the sun in its labors. They 
grew all the sturdier, too, for having to face 
wild weather. 

All the pupils came to school on skis, made 
of long narrow pieces of wood with a leather 
strip in the center through which one merely 
slipped the foot, so that in falling the foot was 
released. The front end was pointed and 
curved upward. It does not take long to go a 
good distance on skis. Juhani could go seven 
miles an hour on his. There were always rows 
of skis at the school door, some large, some 
small, for the proper length depends on the 


60 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

height of the individual. To find it one stands 
with arms extended above one’s head. The 
skis must reach from the ground to the raised 
fingertips. 

At home one of the older children’s duties 
was to teach a young brother or sister how to 
use skis. It was not unusual to see even three- 
year old babes on them. At five years most of 
them could be trusted alone. The first lesson 
was one of balance. One foot was placed in 
advance, the knees bent with the body for- 
ward. This was followed by making the first 
step. 

Sometimes, during vacation days, there were 
ski races, but these were forgotten when in the 
latter part of November announcement was 
made of a ski jumping contest to be held in the 
nearest village. The age limit kept the smaller 
boys from all hope of taking part, but they at 
once organized a ski jumping contest of their 
own. Juhani was the youngest admitted even 


School 


61 


here. “ No, I’ve never tried jumping,” he con- 
fessed when asked, “ but I know that I can do 
it.” At the first meeting of the schoolboys he 
had an opportunity to show what he could do. 
He advanced with something like a swagger, 
made a good jump but landed in a heap instead 
of on his feet. His companions, who knew that 
there was something to learn, all shouted, “ The 
cow cannot climb a hill ! The cow cannot climb 
a hill ! ” which is an old proverb, and means 
that one cannot perform a feat beyond his 
ability. 

Juhani picked himself up, shut his lips tightly 
together, and tried again and again until he 
could outdistance many of the boys. 

When the day of the great contest came 
everybody who could went to see the sport. 
A strong little platform had been built on the 
side of a hill near the town. From this the 
contestants were to spring. 

There were six competitors. One especially 


62 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

seemed to have won favor beforehand, not be- 
cause he was better looking than the others, for 
he was not, but probably because of the merry 
good humor in his eyes. 

The signal came to start. First came a 
stalwart, serious-faced youth who jumped over 
sixty feet, landed on his feet, and raced down 
the hill. After him followed three others, all 
of whom jumped between sixty-five and seventy- 
five feet. The fifth rushed after them, jump- 
ing seventy-nine feet, but failing to land on his 
feet. Last came the popular youth. He 
glanced around until he met the gaze of a little 
old lady in the crowd. Then he smiled and 
waved his hat to her, ran up on the platform, 
doubled up his legs, which he kept close to- 
gether, and then waving his arms to keep his 
balance, jumped far forward. A shout of ap- 
plause burst forth as he landed on his feet 
and raced down the hill. This increased still 
more when it was learned that he had out- 



WAVING HIS ARMS TO KEEP HIS BALANCE, JUMPED FAR 

FORWARD ” 



School 63 

distanced all the others, his jump being over 
eighty feet. 

The last day of the term at school the chil- 
dren had a big Christmas tree. It was dec- 
orated with Russian and Finnish flags and 
candles and with sweets for all hanging from 
its branches. There were many visitors, for on 
this day prizes were to be awarded to the most 
deserving pupils. No one knew for certain to 
whom the chief prizes were to go, but there 
were often clever guesses. In Juhani’s Grade, 
however, a murmur of surprise was heard when 
the name of the winner was announced. An 
unusually shy youth stepped forward awkardly. 
Juhani remembered him as a poor boy who 
had entered that term. He remembered also 
how hard at first he had found the studies, then 
how he improved by degrees until he ranked 
with the best. 

The teacher, in making the presentation, 
dwelt on the virtue of such perseverance and 


64 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

then invited the visitors to ask him any ques- 
tions in his late studies that they desired. 

Several were eager to do this, much to the 
lad’s embarrassment. But no sooner did he 
begin to answer than the embarrassment van- 
ished, and he surprised all present by the clear- 
ness of his replies. 

At the conclusion the teacher said: “This 
year we have for good reasons departed from 
our usual custom of presenting some book to be 
treasured by the winner. Instead we present 
to this deserving pupil a certain amount of 
money with only one stipulation, that he spend 
it in things that will most help him in his future 
studies.” 

“ What will most help me in my future 
studies,” the pupil responded, after some words 
of thanks, “ will be the thought that my mother 
is more comfortable. So I accept this gladly 
if you have no objection to my giving it all at 
once to her.” 


School 65 

The applause of all present showed their 
consent, and after an enquiring look at his 
teacher he walked up to a poorly-dressed 
woman who sat at the very rear of the room 
and whose eyes filled with tears as she took the 
money from his hands. 

The younger children were not the only ones 
provided with schooling. In the nearest vil- 
lage to Juhani’s home an adult school had been 
recently established by a big association called 
the Society for Popular Education. One half 
of the time each day was devoted to hand work, 
one half to easy conversational lessons in his- 
tory, literature, science or any other study that 
appealed to the particular group gathered to- 
gether. All social classes were represented in 
this school. There were sons of peasants, 
servants, shop-keepers. Some of the teachers 
were paid; others volunteered their services to 
help make life more pleasant and useful for 
their fellowmen. Among the latter was a rich 


66 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

neighbor who had just finished a course in one 
of the big Agriculture Schools of the country 
and was looking forward to haying a farm of 
her own. Another teacher was plainly a uni- 
versity student, for she wore the regulation 
student cap, on which a golden lyre was em- 
broidered. Much of the social life of this com- 
munity centered about this school. The people 
came not only to study and learn but also to 
enjoy as a relief from hard daily work the 
companionship of others. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE DECEMBER VACATION 

Long before the coldest weather came, every- 
thing was made ready for a six or eight months’ 
winter. The double windows were surrounded 
by cotton wool and gummed paper to keep out 
the draughts. The open rafters of the kitchen 
now served as a store room. From them hung 
dried fish, smoked pork, and even several weeks’ 
supply of rye bread in large hard cakes with 
a hole in the middle of each. 

As soon as the December holidays came, 
parties at neighboring houses followed each 
other in quick succession. Sometimes these 
were ski-ing parties of school children with the 
teacher in charge. Sometimes the older folks 
gathered, and sometimes whole families. 

67 


68 Our Little Finnish Cousin 


There was always a dinner, and almost always 
dancing and the playing of games. 

One day Juhani’s whole family went to the 
home of a friend who lived fully ten miles dis- 
tant. It was only about nine in the morning 
when they started in two low sleighs. The air 
was crisp and so still that it did not seem to 
stir, the sky intensely blue, as they hurried over 
snow-covered roads, past many forests, each tree 
bright in its pearly gown; past two farms whose 
buildings looked strikingly red and bare against 
their white background. 

As they neared their destination, a bright- 
looking boy, accompanied by a kind of wolf 
hound, raced up on his skis to meet them. 
“ You’re just in time,” he shouted when suffi- 
ciently near, “ to help me make a fox trap. 
An old scamp of a fox has been after our 
chickens and I mean to get him.” 

“Where are you going to set the trap?” 
called back Juhani eagerly. 


The December Vacation 69 

“ I’m going to show you,” responded the 
other, and as Juhani dismounted from the 
sleigh, the two made their way to some distance 
back of the barn. Here Juhani’s friend had 
everything ready. First he drove a long stake 
into the ground. This stake was forked at the 
end with the central prong the longest. “ Feel 
the edges,” he said to Juhani. 

Juhani did so and almost cut his finger. The 
edges were as sharp as knives. 

“ I don’t understand yet,” he said, putting 
his hand up to his mouth, “ how that can catch 
a fox.” 

“ Wait,” returned his friend, and running to 
the barn he soon returned with bait which he 
placed at the top. 

“ The old fellow will jump at that,” he ex- 
plained, “ and catch his paw between the prongs. 
You bet it’ll hold him fast, too. There are a 
lot of them around,” he continued as they made 
their way to the house, “ and we’re a good deal 


70 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

put out by them. Grandfather says, however, 
that it is nothing to the time when father first 
moved here. Then there were wolves and 
bears. I’d like to meet a bear. Do you 
remember the lines: 

‘ Otso apple of the forest 
With thy honey paws so curving ’? 

Grandfather says that they used to use charms 
to help them when they went hunting. Do you 
know what he likes to talk about better than 
bear hunting? It’s seal shooting; perhaps 
because he did it only once. It wasn’t here, of 
course, but on the frozen sea. He says he lay 
flat on a sled in front of which he had fastened 
a white sail so that the seal would take it for 
a part of the ice around. He pushed the sled 
with his feet, and, when near enough, shot.” 

“ That was when he was a fisherman,” con- 
jectured Juhani. 

His friend laughed. “ Please don’t use the 


The December Vacation 71 

past tense in regard to him. Why, he’s still 
a fisherman. Only last year he had a fishing 
adventure that would make some people’s hair 
rise. You look as if you didn’t believe. 
Come, I’ll get him to tell you about it.” 

They found the old man sitting in a sunny 
workroom mending a basket. He was quite 
ready to talk. “ I don’t belong here,” he said, 
“ but to the east end of the gulf. You say that 
you want to hear what happened last spring. 
Well, a whole camp of us went out together to 
fish through the ice. That’s done every year. 
We took tents and firewood and food and ex- 
pected to stay a long time. It was all right for 
a while and we got a lot of fish. But the spring 
thaw came earlier than we expected; we had 
fellows watching, but they were careless, and 
the first thing we knew the ice had cracked and 
I and one other were carried out to sea on a 
great ice floe. Our companions saw us when 
we were about twelve yards away, but they 


72 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

couldn’t do anything for they hadn’t any boats. 
We couldn’t do anything but let the wind and 
wave carry us wherever they wished. I had a 
bottle of rum in my pocket and a big hunk of 
hard bread. My companion had nothing but 
a plug of tobacco. These three things we 
divided and lived on for two days. At last we 
drifted to firm ice, from which, stiff as we were, 
we managed to make our way to the main- 
land.” 

“ You don’t expect to go this year, do you? ” 
asked Juhani. 

“ Yes, I do. Right after the holidays. 
Why shouldn’t I? ” asked the old man sharply. 
“ I wasn’t drowned, was I? ” 

Right here they were fortunately called into 
the house. When they reached it, Juhani at 
once noticed that it was some one’s name day, 
for the doors were prettily decorated with 
boughs. A big meal awaited them indoors, 
and here Juhani found that the decorations 


The December Vacation 73 

were in honor of the mother for her chair was 
also wreathed. He at once went up to her and 
offered his congratulations, which the other 
members of his family had had a chance to do 
before. 

A long time was spent at the table. When 
the meal was finished each person went up to 
the host and hostess, shook hands with them 
and said “ Tack,” thank you. 

Juhani’s friend next took him for a visit to 
the farm’s carpenter shop, where he showed 
him the posts and gates he was making. u Are 
you going to have the shoemaker come to your 
place this year? ” he asked. “ We expect him 
here next week to make us enough shoes to last 
the year through. The tailor isn’t coming till 
January. Two weeks ago we had the harness 
maker; I had to help him, and I tell you, I’m 
glad the harness is mended.” 

Here he thought of something else with 
which to entertain his guest. “ Why, you 


74 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

haven’t seen my new toboggan slide. Let’s go 
quick.” 

They stopped at the barn to get a sled and 
then had several merry rides down a short but 
steep hill. This was followed by snow-balling 
and fancy ski jumping until time to bid each 
other good-by. 

A few days following this pleasant visit, 
Juhani, Maja and the older sister attended a 
“ Riddle Evening ” at the home of a much 
nearer neighbor. Here quite a number of 
young people were gathered, each trying to 
be called the Master Riddle Guesser. Who- 
ever couldn’t answer three riddles in succession 
had to play the fool. He was seated in a chair 
in the middle of the room. One of the girls 
handed over her embroidered apron and it was 
tied around his waist. Another took off the 
kerchief around her neck and it was put on his 
head. Still another lent her glass beads. A 
saucer was then held over a candle flame until 


The December Vacation 75 

soot collected and with this his face was painted. 
The jolly company circled around him jeering 
and then forming a procession solemnly escorted 
him from the room and bade him study out the 
answers that he had not been able to guess. 


CHAPTER VII 


CHRISTMAS WEEK 

Several days before Christmas, the whole 
farmhouse was scrubbed and cleaned, while 
bread was baked and ale brewed. 

On Christmas Eve little Maja scattered clean 
straw on all the floors. 

“ Don’t forget the birds,” her older sister 
cautioned her. 

“As if I would! ” responded Maja. Nod- 
ding to Juhani, who stood by the door, she car- 
ried out a basket filled with crumbs and grain 
for the wild birds and animals. Juhani soon 
followed her with a sheaf of corn, which he 
placed where it would be sure to attract. 

“ You haven’t forgotten, have you, Juhani,” 
said Maja somewhat breathlessly as they stood 
together, “ that they all can speak to-night? ” 
76 



n 


yy 


SHE CARRIED OUT A BASKET FILLED WITH CRUMBS AND GRAIN 



Christmas Week 77 

Juhani nodded and was silent for a moment. 
It always took him some time to get stirred 
up enough to talk. Then he said slowly, “ I’ve 
put some of the food near the door, for ’tis 
said that if you listen behind it at night you’ll 
be able to understand what they say. Don’t 
tell, but I’m going to listen. Wouldn’t it be 
hunky if I found out some secret? ” 

“ Oh, then I must listen, too ! ” exclaimed 
Maja. But her brother did not like the idea. 

“ We’d be found out sure if you did,” he said. 
“ Better let me do it alone and I’ll tell you about 
it to-morrow, — before I tell any one else.” 

Maja reluctantly agreed, and the two went 
indoors where they separated, each to wrap 
up presents that they had made and to write 
the name of the recipient together with an 
appropriate verse or sentence on an attached 
paper. These were placed in the front room 
from which they mysteriously disappeared 
while the family were having their supper of 


78 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

rice porridge and lut fisk (stock fish), prepared 
in a way peculiar to the country. 

After supper all seated themselves near the 
big stove and were very still with their eyes 
on the door. Presently a loud knock came. 
“Welcome! Welcome !” every one shouted. 

The door opened and Father Christmas 
dressed as a Yule Goat entered. He carried 
a basket filled with gifts, and as he took one 
after another up he first read the recipient’s 
name, then the attached verse, some of which 
were so funny that they caused much laughter. 
No one was left out. The servants, who were 
all present, smiled happily at having been 
remembered so generously, and even the big dog 
came in for his share which was a piece of meat 
wrapped securely in paper. 

When bed time came, the children prepared 
to go to sleep on straw in memory of the Christ 
Child. Maja looked regretfully after Juhani, 
who had received permission from his mother 


Christmas Week 79 

to have the straw for him placed that night on 
the kitchen floor. 

In the morning all rose early, Maja and 
Juhani running into the front room to see 
“ Heaven,” a framework hung from the ceiling 
and made up of threads and yarn and straws 
and decorated with gilt stars. It was lit by a 
candle and seemed very beautiful to both of 
them, much to the satisfaction of the older sister, 
who had followed them, and whose work it was. 

Long before six o’clock a visit had been paid 
to all the farm animals, and a supply of food 
and some dainty given each. Candles were 
then placed in all the windows, and putting on 
their heavy coats, their caps with ear flappers, 
and their heavy boots, they all piled into sleighs 
and were off to church. 

It was very dark much of the way. Indeed 
it would be fortunate if the sun shone for five 
or six hours before night. They did not mind 
the dark, for they were not alone. From all 


80 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

sides people came, either on skis or in sleighs. 

After the service there was a race of skis 
and sleighs homewards over the frozen lake 
in eager anticipation of the Christmas dinner, 
whose chief dish, Maja whispered to Juhani, 
was to be a big ham. It was not until they 
were home again that she found a chance to 
corner Juhani by himself and demand eagerly: 
“ What did they say? ” 

Juhani looked curiously at her. “ I listened 
last night,” he said slowly, “ for a long time but 
I didn’*t hear any animal or bird speak.” 
Then, seeing Maja’s disappointed face, he 
added quickly, “ There are other things one 
can do. You know Esko’s grandmother. 
Well, she once saw a great assembly of snakes 
on a hill near Impivaare. She knows all about 
snakes. She says that if you can kill an old 
adder and eat him just before the first cuckoo, 
ever after that you’ll understand the language 
of birds and know all sorts of things.” 


Christmas Week 81 

Maja shuddered. “ You wouldn’t do that, 
would you ? ” she asked appealingly. 

Juhani looked at her for a moment, and then, 
unable to withstand the temptation to tease 
her, said, “ Why not? ” and ran away. 

Before New Year’s with its special signifi- 
cance came, a guest arrived from Helsingfors. 
It was Juhani and Maja’s aunt, a woman who 
had achieved some renown in the Capital as 
an architect. 

They enjoyed her vivid descriptions of how 
the snow there was daily shoveled from the 
pavements, and how when you step on what 
remains it screams: “A hard winter! A 
hard winter ! ” 

“ We haven’t gone in for as much ice yacht- 
ing as usual,” she remarked, rather sadly, the 
children thought. “ The times are too un- 
settled.” 

“ Tell us about the yachting,” urged Maja, 
seeing the look of interest in Juhani’s face, and 


82 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

knowing his slowness in asking for what he 
wanted. 

“ I know nothing more thrilling, 1 ’ the aunt 
returned, smiling, “ than lying flat on your 
stomach on an ice yacht in motion. The yacht 
may take little leaps so that at times it seems 
to you as if it were about to fly. Then you rush 
madly at something and prepare yourself surely 
for a smash, but just in time the yacht swerves 
and you are safe to fly some more. In a 
sense you do fly, for when the wind is strong 
the yacht is sometimes lifted high into the air. 
When it comes down you feel as if the world 
were coming to an end. It would have been 
fine for ice yachting this year, for we had black 
ice.” 

“What is that?” asked Maja. 

“ I know,” broke in Juhani unexpectedly. 
“ It is when the ice forms before snow 
falls.” 

His aunt nodded. “Yes; then the water 


Christmas Week 83 

looks like a mirror and it is much smoother than 
when covered with snow.” 

“ Did you come direct from Helsingfors? ” 
asked Lilja after a pause. 

“ No,” replied the aunt. “ I had to go first 
to Viborg.” And she described to them the 
famous Saima Canal, one of the many canals 
of the country which starts from there. It is 
built of Finnish granite and took eleven years 
to complete. “ It goes,” she said, “ to Saima 
Lake, called the lake of a thousand islands, the 
most important lake of Finland. This lake is 
about three hundred feet above the sea level, 
so that the vessels on the canal have to be raised 
by locks. There are at least twenty-eight of 
these. I once saw three steamers on it and 
they looked as if they were walking up stairs. 
We mustn’t forget that this canal is one of the 
good things that we owe to the Russians. It 
probably would not have been constructed but 
for the interest of Tzar Nicolas I, during 


84 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

whose reign it was begun. Viborg seems to 
be made up of Russian soldiers, which of 
course is no wonder, since it is the nearest town 
to the Russian frontier.” 

She seemed inclined to say more but evidently 
thought better of it for she changed the con- 
versation. “ Some friends with whom I had 
dinner at Viborg told me a story that will in- 
terest you. It was regarding a relative that 
they called Pekka (Peter) and who for a while 
lived in the Castle of Olafsborg in the quaint 
town of Nyslott. It happened in this way. 
He came to Nyslott to attend the Musical Fes- 
tival held there in the summer. The town was 
crowded and he despaired of getting a bed when 
he ran across an acquaintance to whom he told 
his troubles. 

“ ‘ Unfortunately,’ said the latter, 4 1 am a 
stranger here. I don’t know a person, — ex- 
cept the watchman who has charge of the 
Castle.’ 


Christmas Week 85 

“ The relative is of a somewhat romantic 
turn of mind. ‘Excellent!’ he said. ‘ Just 
the thing. Let’s go over at once and hire a 
room from the watchman.’ 

“ ‘ Do you mean,’ said his acquaintance in- 
credulously, ‘that you’re willing to stay in a 
ruined castle — probably haunted — all night? ’ 

“ But the young man was stubborn, and the 
two secured a boat and rowed over to the 
Castle. Nyslott is built on islands but the castle 
has one of its own. When they landed they 
found the watchman, who, after some hesita- 
tion, offered the stranger his own room, which 
was in a separate little building put up for his 
benefit. 

“ But Pekka would not have it so. ‘ I’d 
rather you’d fix me up something in the castle 
itself.’ The watchman thought this a joke and 
proposed that they wander through the building 
to find a place that would suit. 

“ So they started. Everything looked very 


86 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

ancient, for the castle dates back to 1475. 
They went through queer passages where the 
walls were sometimes fifteen feet thick, under 
arches, up winding stairs, down again, into 
cellars and dungeons and ruined chambers. At 
last they came to the Hall of Knights, a long, 
dimly lighted room. The walls had fallen here 
to enclose partly a little space that was still 
roofed over. 

“ 1 This shall be my lodging place,’ declared 
the young man. ‘ Are you serious? ’ asked the 
watchman. 

“ 1 I certainly am,’ answered Pekka, putting 
some money in the watchman’s hand. The 
watchman thought for a while. 1 1 shall have 
to see the authorities,’ he said at last. 

“ ‘ I’ll wait here,’ said Pekka, and wait he 
did. 

“ When the guardian of the place returned 
he was all smiles. 1 All right,’ he said and set 
to work clearing the space. Then he brought 


Christmas Week 87 

rugs and a big fur coat on which the man could 
sleep. 

“ The weather was warm and the bed could- 
n’t have been very uncomfortable, for Pekka 
stayed there three nights. He declared after- 
wards that he dreamt wonderful dreams of the 
time when three races, the Swedes, the Rus- 
sians and the Finns, struggled for the possession 
of this spot. One night he awoke shouting: 
‘ The enemy ! the enemy ! ’ and then found that 
the invaders were only some of the many bats, 
who thought that they had a better right than 
he to this castle home.” 

Here the aunt brought forth some interest- 
ing photographs which she had taken at Hel- 
singfors. One was an active scene at the open 
air market when the autumn sailing fleet came 
to sell winter provisions. It showed the peas- 
ant carts and the bright stalls covered with white 
awnings and blue umbrellas, the market women 
in gay attire, the butchers in bright pink coats 


88 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

or blouses, and the boats laden with fruit and 
vegetables, kegs of salted fish, and honey. 
There was also a picture taken earlier in the 
year, showing one of the principal harbors with 
crafts of every shape and size. There were 
enormous passenger boats, little market boats 
rowed by bare-armed women, small pleasure 
yachts, big timber ships with red brown 
sails, and a group of white Russian war ves- 
sels. 

She had pictures, too, in which the older 
members of the family were interested, show- 
ing-two very distinct styles of architecture to be 
found in Helsingfors. One was of a group 
of fine modern buildings on a broad street 
called the Myntgatan. They were of gray 
stone, six or seven stories high, dignified and 
well proportioned, with carefully selected 
classical decorations. In contrast to this, she 
produced photographs of other buildings of 
decided Finnish individuality. These buildings 


Christmas Week 89 

showed great variety, being of rough granite 
or brick, with tiled roofs, unusual balconies and 
porticos, fantastic plaster decorations, such as 
a group of frogs, a procession of swimming 
swans, a bunch of carrots and turnips, or a sav- 
age animal head. 

Another group of pictures showed the types 
of work done by Helsingfors women. In one 
of these a number of women were cleaning the 
streets, using immense brooms for the sweep- 
ing. In one, they were washing clothes on 
platforms built out into the sea. In still an- 
other, several stood on a scaffold, plastering a 
house, while three others were at work con- 
structing a door. 

Of all the pictures Maja liked best a view of 
the statue of Runeberg, the national poet, show- 
ing how it was decorated with flowers and 
laurels on the anniversity of his birthday. 
Juhani was attracted more particularly to a 
picture of a magnificent horse harnessed to a 


go Our Little Finnish Cousin 

sleigh, his loins covered with a cloak coming far 
down to keep out the cold. 

The aunt presented these to the children. 
“ Our people are kind to their horses,” she 
said to Juhani; then turning to Maja: “On 
Runeberg’s birthday not only is his statue in 
the square decorated, but all houses are lit up 
to show he is remembered, while in every 
restaurant people give festal dinners in his 
honor.” 

Then the aunt brought forth something that 
the children appreciated still more than the pic- 
tures. It was a sort of cake, especially pecul- 
iar to Viborg, made in the form of a lover’s 
knot, and it had been baked on straw, some of 
which still stuck to the bottom. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SUMMER TIME 

In April the melting snow and ice showed 
that spring was on the way. How dirty and 
muddy it was everywhere! Instead of skis, 
the children had to wade to school in well 
greased boots. 

New kinds of festivities took the place of the 
old. At Easter time eggs were painted and 
the family feasted on memma, a dish of boiled 
sweetened malt, eaten with cream and sugar. 

On the first of May big swings were erected 
in the grove near the church and there the peo- 
ple gathered from a considerable distance, the 
children to swing and frolic, and their elders to 
listen to the singing of runes, some so ancient 
that the meaning was no longer plain, or to 
speeches welcoming the return of spring. 


91 


92 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

“Let’s play! Let’s play!” the children 
shouted as if they hadn’t also played in the 
winter. Play they did. Sometimes it was 
“ Last Pair Out.” In this the boys and girls 
formed pairs and stood behind each other. At 
a signal the last couples separated, each going 
on different sides of the line and trying to unite 
in front before being caught by the one who was 
“ It.” They danced “ To-day is the First of 
May ” in a double circle, and the “ Ring Dance” 
to which they sang : 

My love is like a strawberry, 

So red and sweet is she: 

And no one else may swing her round, 

No one else ’cept me. 

There was one little girl who was quite a 
leader in the games. Perhaps the reason was 
the enthusiastic way in which she played. She 
seemed to have two favorites: “Hide and 
Seek,” in which the children counted out to see 
who was to be “ It,” and “ Wolf.” Both boys 


Summer Time 


93 

and girls played the latter as they did most of 
the other games. Juhani was the first to be 
the “ Wolf,” to the apparent joy of the 
leader, who took particular delight in teasing 
and escaping from him until he just ran her 
down and caught her. 

Maja did not play this. She had found some 
children younger than herself whom she joined 
in making miniature farms out of stones and 
sand. The first building which she erected was 
not the dwelling-house but the Sauna or bath- 
house. Then followed the other farm build- 
ings, and last the cattle had stones carefully 
selected for them. 

The spring, ushered in with such hearty wel- 
come, went with a surprising swiftness, and sum- 
mer arrived with intense blue skies and floods 
of sunshine and flowers. This was the time 
of the white nights, — a happy holiday time, 
— when the sun shines for more than eighteen 
hours at a time and for the remainder of the 


94 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

twenty-four leaves generously its reflection 
behind. 

During this springtime weather Maja saw 
that there were fresh wild flowers — pansies, 
lilies of the valley, lilacs, or wild roses — daily 
in the living-room. She loved the spring 
particularly for these. “ How I love the 
flowers!” she would exclaim enthusiastic- 
ally to Juhani whenever she found a new 
one 

Juhani would smile slowly, look thoughtfully 
into the distance, and after a pause return: 
“ I like the spring for many things, but best 
I think for the change in the forest.” Maja 
knew that he meant the new bits of sunshine 
everywhere and the new growth of needles that 
glistened so green against the background of 
the dark pines, and all the new bird calls to be 
heard there. 

In June the schools closed, and for a while 
nothing was talked of but the preparations for 







Summer Time 95 

the great midsummer festival to be held on 
June twenty-fourth, John the Baptist Day. 

There seemed no end of things to be done 
to show gladness. Maja wove garlands of 
flowers, while Juhani and his friends cut down 
great branches of birch trees in the forest, with 
which to decorate the houses. Lilja and her 
girl friends were also busy. They went, to the 
fields and wound colored yarn around the rye 
stalks, arranging them to indicate joy and 
sorrow, love and hate. Before the grain was 
harvested these marked stalks would be found 
and the year’s fortune foretold according to 
which was highest. 

Big bonfires, called kokko f were lit on all the 
highest points, and also on rafts on the lake in 
honor of the Sun. These were kept burning 
for twenty-four hours, for it is considered un- 
lucky for them to go out sooner. Around these 
the people gathered to dance, many of them 
coming from a distance in farm carts trimmed 


q6 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

with birch and filled with hay. There was a 
feast, too, of warm soup, cold salmon, and 
fancy cakes. The swings must not be for- 
gotten. Several of them had been erected and 
not merely for the children. On some, young 
men and women swung together, while they 
sang the beautiful melancholy songs about this 
beautiful fleeting time. 

During this season tourists invaded the 
country districts, some on their way to Aava- 
saksa Hill where the sun can then be seen at 
midnight, shedding gray, faintly luminous rays. 
Among those who came were many Russians 
of the wealthy and middle classes. 

It was not all play. There was much, very 
much hard work in which the children all had 
their set tasks. Juhani had to drive the cattle 
through the woodlands, assist Lilja with the 
milking, and help make hay. Maja had to 
gather berries, of which there was a great 
abundance. It is true there were compensa- 


Summer Time 


97 

tions for all these tasks. If children had to 
gather berries, they could also eat big bowls of 
them with thick cream added, at every meal. 
Some of the berries Maja gathered she sold to 
passengers on the lake steamers. When she 
intended doing so, she made birch baskets for 
them by stripping off a foot square of bark and 
bending it into the shape of a box without a 
lid, then sewing the sides with twigs. 

She had also to gather sacks full of luikku , 
a soft white cotton flower with an odd perfume, 
to be used for stuffing the family pillows. 

Although it was vacation there was one school 
task that all the children had to do or cared 
to do. It was gathering, pressing, and mount- 
ing as many as possible of the numerous wild 
flowers everywhere found in the woods and 
fields. The best presented at the beginning of 
the school term were always put on exhibition. 

The only disagreeable part of the warm 
weather was the annoyance from mosquitoes. 


98 Our Little Finnish Cousin 

[This made it necessary to light smoldering fires 
for the protection of the cattle who seemed to 
appreciate the fires, for without being driven 
they would cluster around them. Twigs of 
juniper were burned in the house for the same 
purpose. It was not always easy to get juni- 
per, for it grows only in clay soil and Maja and 
her friends sometimes had a long tramp after it. 

Once, remembering the story of the Lapp 
children, Juhani smeared tar all over his face 
and hands and then teased Maja by threatening 
to put some on her too. 

After July, the long magic days grew shorter, 
and when the days and nights were again almost 
equal, the children found themselves planning 
what they would do when school reopened. 


THE END 


Selections from 
The Page Company’s 
Books for Young People 

THE BLUE BONNET SERIES 

Each large 12mo , cloth decorative, illustrated, 

; per volume ....... $1.50 

A TEXAS BLUE BONNET 

By Caroline E. Jacobs. 

“ The book’s heroine, Blue Bonnet, has the very finest 
kind of wholesome, honest, lively girlishness.” — Chicago 
Inter-Ocean . 

BLUE BONNET’S RANCH PARTY 

By Caroline E. Jacobs and Edyth Ellerbeck Read. 
“A healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every 
chapter.” — Boston Transcript. 

BLUE BONNET IN BOSTON; Or, Boarding- 

School Days at Miss North’s. 

By Caroline E. Jacobs and Lela Horn Richards. 

“ It is bound to become popular because of its whole- 
someness and its many human touches.” — Boston Globe. 

BLUE BONNET KEEPS HOUSE; On, The 

New Home in the East. 

By Caroline E. Jacobs and Lela Horn Richards. 
“It cannot fail to prove fascinating to girls in their 
teens.” — New York Sun. 

BLUE BONNET— DEBUTANTE 

By Lela Horn Richards. 

An interesting picture of the unfolding of life for 
Blue Bonnet. 

A— I 


TEE PAGE COMPANY'S 


THE YOUNG PIONEER SERIES 

By Harrison Adams 

Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per 
volume $1.25 

THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO; Or, 

Clearing the Wilderness. 

“ Such books as this are an admirable means of stimu- 
lating among the young Americans of to-day interest in 
the story of their pioneer ancestors and the early days of 
the Republic.” — Boston Globe. 

THE PIONEER BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES ; 

Or, On the Trail of the Iroquois. 

“ The recital of the daring deeds of the frontier is not 
only interesting but instructive as well and shows the 
sterling type of character which these days of self-reliance 
and trial produced.” — American Tourist, Chicago. 

THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSISSIPPI; 

Or, The Homestead in the Wilderness. 

“The story is told with spirit, and is full of adven- 
ture.” — New York Sun. 

THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSOURI; 

Or, In the Country of the Sioux. 

“ Vivid in style, vigorous in movement, full of dramatic 
situations, true to historic perspective, this story is a 
capital one for boys.” — Watchman Examiner , New York 
City. 

THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE YELLOW- 
STONE; Or, Lost in the Land of Wonders. 
“There is plenty of lively adventure and action and 
the story is well told.” — Duluth Herald, Duluth, Minn. 

THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE COLUMBIA; 

Or, In the Wilderness of the Great Northwest. 

“ The story is full of spirited action and contains much 
valuable historical information.” — Boston Herald . 

A— 2 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE HADLEY HALL SERIES 

By Louise M. Breitenbach 
Each large 12mo , cloth decorative, illustrated, per 
volume $1.50 

ALMA AT HADLEY HALL 

“ The author is to be congratulated on having written 
such an appealing book for girls.” — Detroit Free Press . •' 

ALMA’S SOPHOMORE YEAR 

“It cannot fail to appeal to the lovers of good things 
in girls’ books.” — Boston Herald. < 

ALMA’S JUNIOR YEAR 

“ The diverse characters in the boarding-school are 
strongly drawn, the incidents are well developed and the 
action is never dull.” — The Boston Herald . 

ALMA’S SENIOR YEAR 

Incident abounds in all of Miss Breitenbach’s stories 
and a healthy, natural atmosphere breathes from every 
Chapter.” — Boston Transcript. 


THE GIRLS OF 
FRIENDLY TERRACE SERIES 

' By Harriet Lummis Smith 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated ; 
per volume $1.50 

THE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE 

“ A book sure to please girl readers, for the author seems 
to understand perfectly the girl character.” — Boston. 
Globe. 

PEGGY RAYMOND’S VACATION 

“It is a wholesome, hearty story.” — Utica Observer . 

PEGGY RAYMOND’S SCHOOL DAYS 

The book is delightfully written, and contains lota of exciting 
incidents. 

A — 9 


THE PAGE COMPANY'S 


FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES 

By Charles H. L. Johnston 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per 
volume $1.50 

FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS 

“ More of such books should be written, books that 
acquaint young readers, with historical personages in a 
pleasant, informal way.” — New York Sun. 

“ It is a book that will stir the heart of every boy and 
will prove interesting as well to the adults.” — Lawrence 
Daily World. 

FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS 

“ Mr. Johnston has done faithful work in this volume, 
and his relation of battles, sieges and struggles of these 
famous Indians with the whites for the possession of 
America is a worthy addition to United States History.” 
— New York Marine Journal. 

FAMOUS SCOUTS 

“ It is the kind of a book that will have a great fascina- 
tion for boys and young men, and while it entertains them 
it will also present valuable information in regard to 
those who have left their impress upon the history of the 
country.” — The New London Day. 

FAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN AND ADVEN- 
TURERS OF THE SEA 

“ The tales are more than merely interesting; they are 
entrancing, stirring the blood with thrilling force and 
bringing new zest to the never-ending interest in the 
dramas of the sea.” — The Pittsburgh Post. 

FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN AND HEROES 
OF THE BORDER 

This book is devoted to a description of the adventur- 
ous lives and stirring experiences of many pioneer heroes 
who were prominently identified with the opening of the 
Great West. 

“ The accounts are not only authentic, but distinctly 
readable, making a book of wide appeal to all who love 
the history of actual adventure.” — Cleveland Leader - 

A— 4 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


HILDEGARDE - MARGARET SERIES 

By Laura E. Richards 
Eleven Volumes 

The Hildegarde-Margaret Series, beginning with 
“ Queen Hildegarde ” and ending with “ The Merry- 
weathers,” make one of the best and most popular series 
of books for girls ever written. 

Each large 12mo, cloth decorative , illustrated , 
per volume ....... $1.25 

The eleven volumes boxed as a set . . . $13.75 

LIST OF TITLES 

QUEEN HILDEGARDE 

HILDEGARDE ’S HOLIDAY 

HILDEGARDE’S HOME 

HILDEGARDE’S NEIGHBORS 

HILDEGARDE’S HARVEST 

THREE MARGARETS 

MARGARET MONTFORT 

PEGGY 

RITA 

FERNLEY HOUSE 

THE MERRYWEATHERS 
A — 6 


THE PAGE COMP ANTS 


THE CAPTAIN JANUARY SERIES 

By Laura E. Richards 
Each 12mo, cloth decorative , illustrated, per 
volume . Net, 50 cents; carriage paid, 60 centa 

CAPTAIN JANUARY 

A charming idyl of New England coast life, whose 
success has been very remarkable. 

SAME. Illustrated Holiday Edition . . $1.35 

SAME, French Text. Illustrated Holiday 
Edition $1.35 

MELODY: The Story of a Child. 

SAME. Illustrated Holiday Edition . . $1.35 

MARIE 

A companion to “ Melody ” and “ Captain J anuary.” 

ROSIN THE BEAU 

A sequel to “ Melody ” and “ Marie.” 
SNOW-WHITE; Or, The House in the Wood. 

JIM OF HELLAS; Or, In Durance Vile, and 
a companion story, Bethesda Pool. 

NARCISSA 

And a companion story, In Verona, being two de- 
lightful short stories of New England life. 

“ SOME SAY” 

And a companion story, Neighbors in Cyrus. 

NAUTILUS 

“ ‘ Nautilus ’ is by far the best product of the author’s 
powers, and is certain to achieve the wide success it so 
richly merits.” 

ISLA HERON 

This interesting story is written in the author’s usual 
charming manner. 

THE LITTLE MASTER 

“ A well told, interesting tale of a high character,” — 
California Gateway Gazette . 

A — 6 


BOOKS FOB YOUNG PEOPLE 


DELIGHTFUL BOOKS FOR LITTLE 
FOLKS 

By Laura E. Richards 

THREE MINUTE STORIES 

Cloth decorative, 12mo, with eight plates in full color 
and many text illustrations by Josephine Bruce. 

Net $1.25; carriage paid $1.40 
“ Little ones will understand and delight in the stories 
and poems .” — Indianapolis News. 

FIVE MINUTE STORIES 

Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated . $1.25 
A charming collection of short stories and clever poems 
for children. 

MORE FIVE MINUTE STORIES 

Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated . $1.25 
A noteworthy collection of short stories and poems 
for children, which will prove as popular with mothers 
as with boys and girls. 

FIVE MICE IN A MOUSE TRAP 

Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated . $1.25 

The story of their lives and other wonderful things 
related by the Man in the Moon, done in the vernacular 
from the lunacular form by Laura E. Richards. 

WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE 

Cloth, 8vo, illustrated $1.25 

The title most happily introduces the reader to the 
charming home life of Doctor Howe and Mrs. Julia 
Ward Howe, during the childhood of the author. 

A HAPPY LITTLE TIME 

Cloth, 8vo, illustrated $1.25 

Little Betty and the happy time she had will appeal 
strongly to mothers as well as to the little ones who will 
have this story read to them, and appeal all the more 
on account of its being such a “real” story. 

A— T 


THE PA&E COMPANY'S 


THE BOYS’ STORY OF THE 
RAILROAD SERIES 

By Burton E. Stevenson 

Each large 12mo , cloth decorative , illustrated , per 
volume .... $1.50 

THE YOUNG SECTION - HAND ; Or, The Ad- 

VENTURES OF ALLAN WEST. 

“ A thrilling story, well told, clean and bright. The 
whole range of section railroading is covered in the story, 
and it contains information as well as interest.” — Chicago 
Post. 

THE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER 

“ A vivacious account of the varied and often hazard- 
ous nature of railroad life, full of incident and adventure, 
in which the author has woven admirable advice about 
honesty, manliness, self-culture, good reading, and the 
secrets of success.” — Congregationalist. 

THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER 

“ It is a book that can be unreservedly commended to 
anyone who loves a good, wholesome, thrilling, informing 
yarn.” — Passaic News. 

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE J Or, Allan West’s 
Chum. 

“ The story is intensely interesting, and one gains an 
intimate knowledge of the methods and works in the 
great car shops not easily gained elsewhere.” — Baltimore 
Sun. 

u It appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at 
the same time teaches him some valuable lessons in honor, 
pluck, and perseverance.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

“ The lessons that the books teach in development of 
uprightness, honesty and true manly character are sure 
to jigpeal to the reader.”. — The American Boy . 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS 

(Trade Mark) 

By Annie Fellows Johnston 
Each large 12mo , cloth, illustrated, per volume . $1.50 

THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES 

(Trade Mark) 

Being three “ Little Colonel ” stories in the Cosy Corner 
Series, “ The Little Colonel,” “ Two Little Knights of 
Kentucky/' and “ The Giant Scissors/’ in a single volume. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOUSE PARTY 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOLIDAYS 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HERO 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING- 

(Trade Mark) 

SCHOOL 

THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S CHRISTMAS 

(Trade Mark) 

VACATION 

THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S KNIGHT COMES 

(Trade Mark) 

RIDING 

MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL’S 

(Trade Mark) 

CHUM 

MARY WARE IN TEXAS 
MARY WARE’S PROMISED LAND 

These twelve volumes, boxed as a set, $18.00. 

A— 9 


THE PAGE COMPANY'S 


SPECIAL HOLIDAY EDITIONS 

Each small quarto, cloth decorative , per volume . $1.25 

New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page 
drawings in color, and many marginal sketches. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL 

(Trade Mark) 

TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY 
THE GIANT SCISSORS 
BIG BROTHER 

THE JOHNSTON JEWEL SERIES 

Each small 16mo , cloth decorative , with frontispiece 

and decorative text borders , per volume . Net $0.50 

IN THE DESERT OF WAITING : The Legend 

op Camelback Mountain. 

THE THREE WEAVERS! A Fairy Tale for 
Fathers and Mothers as Well as for Their 
Daughters. 

KEEPING TRYST: A Tale of King Arthur’s 
Time. 

THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART 
THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME: 

A Fairy Play for Old and Young. 

THE JESTER’S SWORD 


THE LITTLE COLONEL’S GOOD TIMES 
BOOK 

Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series . $1.50 

Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold . 1 Net 3.00 
Cover design and decorations by Peter Verberg. 

“ A mighty attractive volume in which the owner may 
reoord the good times she has on decorated pages, and 
raider the directions as it were of Annie Fellows John- 
ston.” — Buffalo Express . 

A — 10 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE LITTLE COLONEL DOLL BOOK — 
First Series 

Quarto, boards, printed in colors . * * $1.50 

A series of “Little Colonel” dolls. Each has several 
changes of costume, so they can be appropriately clad 
for the rehearsal of any scene or incident in the series. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL DOLL BOOK- 

Second Series 

Quarto, boards, printed in colors . . . $1.50 

An artistic series of paper dolls, including not only 
lovable Mary Ware, the Little Coloners chum, but many 
another of the much loved characters which appear in 
the last three volumes of the famous “ Little Colonel 
Series.” 

ASA HOLMES 

By Annie Fellows Johnston. 

With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. 

16mo, cloth decorative, gilt top . . . $1.00 

" 1 Asa Holmes ’ is the most delightful, most sympa- 
thetic and wholesome book that has been published in a 
long while.” — Boston Times. 

TRAVELERS FIVE: ALONG LIFE’S HIGH- 
WAY 

By Annie Fellows Johnston. 

With an introduction by Bliss Carman, and a frontis- 
piece by E. H. Garrett. 

12mo, cloth decorative $1.25 

“ Mrs. Johnston broadens her reputation with this book 
so rich in the significance of common things.” — Boston 
Advertiser. 

JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE 

By Annie Fellows Johnston. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . .$1.50 

“ The book is a very clever handling of the greatest 
event in the history of the world.” — Rochester t N.Y. t 
Herald . 

a— n 


TEE PAGE COMPANY’S 


THE BOYS’ STORY OF THE ARMY 
SERIES 

By Florence Kimball Russel 

BORN TO THE BLUE 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.25 

“ The story deserves warm commendation and genuine 
popularity.” — Army and Navy Register . 

IN WEST POINT GRAY 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 

“ One of the best books that deals with West Point.” — 
New York Sun. 

FROM CHEVRONS TO SHOULDER. 
STRAPS 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 

“ The life of a cadet at West Point is portrayed very 
realistically.” — The Hartford Post, Hartford, Conn. 

DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL SERIES 

By Marion Ames Taggart 

Each large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume , $1.50 

THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL 

“ A charming story of the ups and downs of the life 
of a dear little maid.” — The Churchman . 

SWEET NANCY: The Further Adventures of 
the Doctor’s Little Girl. 

“Just the sort of book to amuse, while its influence 
cannot but be elevating.” — New York Sun. 

NANCY, THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE PARTNER 

“ The jtory is sweet and fascinating, such as many 
girls of wholesome tastes will enjoy.” — Springfield Union. 

NANCY PORTER’S OPPORTUNITY 

“ Nancy shows throughout that she is a splendid young 
woman, with plenty of pluck.” — Boston Globe. 

NANCY AND THE COGGS TWINS 

“ The story is refreshing .” — New York Sun. 

A — 12 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


WORKS OF EVALEEN STEIN 

THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by Adelaide 

Everhart SI .25 

This story happened many hundreds of years ago in 
the quaint Flemish city of Bruges and concerns a little 
girl named Karen, who worked at lace-making with her 
aged grandmother. 

GABRIEL AND THE HOUR BOOK 

Small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and 
decorated in colors by Adelaide Everhart . . $1.25 

“No works in juvenile fiction contain so many of the 
elements that stir the hearts of children and grown-ups as 
well as do the stories so admirably told by this author.” 

— Louisville Daily Courier. 

A LITTLE SHEPHERD OF PROVENCE 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by Diantha 

H. Marlowe $1.25 

“ The story should be one of the influences in the life 
of every child to whom good stories can be made to 
appeal.” — Public Ledger. 

THE LITTLE COUNT OF NORMANDY 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by John Goss $1.25 
“ This touching and pleasing story is told with a wealth 
of interest coupled with enlivening descriptions of the 
country where its scenes are laid and of the people thereof.” 

— W ilmington Every Evening. 


ELEANOR OF THE HOUSEBOAT 

By Louise M. Beeitenbach. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 

An unusually interesting story of how Eleanor Tracy 
spent a wonderful summer on a houseboat. 

A— 13 


THE PAGE COMPANY’S 


HISTORICAL BOOKS 

THE BOYS OF *6l ; Or, Four Years of Fighting. 

By Charles Carleton Coffin. 

Standard Edition. An entirely new edition, cloth deco- 
rative, 8vo, with nearly two hundred illustrations, $2.00 
Popular Edition. Cloth decorative, 12mo, with eight 
illustrations . . . . . . . $1.00 

A record of personal observation with the Army and 
Navy, from the Battle of Bull Run to the fall of Rich- 
mond. 

THE BOYS OF 1812 ; And Other Naval Heroes. 
By James Russell Soley. 

Cloth decorative, 8vo, illustrated . . . $2.00 

“ The book is full of stirring incidents and adven- 
tures.” — Boston Herald. 

THE SAILOR BOYS OF ’6i 

By James Russell Soley. 

Cloth decorative, 8vo, illustrated . . . $2.00 

“ It is written with an enthusiasm that never allows 
the interest to slacken.” — The Call , Newark, N. J. 

BOYS OF FORT SCHUYLER 

By James Otis. 

Cloth decorative, square 12mo, illustrated . $1.25 
“ It is unquestionably one of the best historical Indian 
stories ever written.” — Boston Herald. 

FAMOUS WAR STORIES 

By Charles Carleton Coffin 
Each cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated, per vol., $1.25 

WINNING HIS WAY 

A story of a young soldier in the Civil War. 

MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BAT- 
TLE FIELD 

A story of the Battle of Bull Run and other battles in 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and on the Mississippi. 

FOLLOWING THE FLAG 

A story of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War, 
A — 14i 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


STORIES OF NEWSBOY LIFE 

By James Otis 

Each 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per 
volume $1.25 

JENNY WREN’S BOARDING HOUSE 

“Distinctively a story of newsboy life in New York, 
and Mr. Otis very quickly finds his way to the sensitive 
and loving heart that beats under the ragged and torn 
coat of the little boy who is untiring in his efforts to sell 
his papers and thereby earn a mere pittance to sustain 
life. — Boston Herald. 

TEDDY AND CARROTS; Or, Two Merchants 

of Newspaper How. 

His newsboys are real and wide-awake, and his story 
abounds with many exciting scenes and graphic incidents. 

THE BOYS’ REVOLT 

A story of the street arabs of New York. 

“ This is the story of a strike of bootblack boys in the 
city of New York and it contains stirring scenes and 
incidents.” — The Christian Register. 

JERRY’S FAMILY 

The story of a street waif of New York. 

It is written in the author’s best vein, the scene being 
one in which he has won many brilliant successes, i.e., 
picturing life among the street arabs of New York. 

THE PRINCESS AND JOE POTTER 

“ The secret of the author’s success lies in his wonder- 
ful sympathy with the aspirations of child-life, his truth- 
ful delineation of life among the children who act as his 
object lessons.” — New York Sun. 

LARRY HUDSON’S AMBITION 

“ The book is written with brisk and deft cleverness.” 
— New York Sun. 

“ An attractive story, with a healthy outdoor atmos- 
phere.” — New York Commercial Advertiser. 

A — 15 


THE PAGE COMP ANTS 


THE SANDMAN SERIES 

By William J. Hopkins 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative , illustrated, 
per volume . • •» ,1 $1.50 

THE SANDMAN: His Farm Stories. 

“ Mothers and fathers and kind elder sisters who take 
the little ones to bed and rack their brains for stories 
will find this book a treasure.” — Cleveland Leader. 

THE SANDMAN: More Farm Stories. 

“ Children will call for these stories over and over 
again.” — Chicago Evening Post. 

THE SANDMAN: His Ship Stories. 

“ Little ones will understand and delight in the stories 
and their parents will read between the lines and recog- 
nize the poetic and artistic work of the author.” — 
Indianapolis News. 

THE SANDMAN: His Sea Stories. 

“ Once upon a time there was a man who knew little 
children and the kind of stories they liked, so he wrote 
four books of Sandman’s stories, all about the farm or 
the sea, and the brig Industry, and this book is one of 
them.” — Canadian Congregationalist. 


THE SANDMAN: His Animal Stories. 

By Harry W. Frees. 

“The Sandman is a wonderful fellow. First, he told 
farm stories, then ship stories, then sea stories. And 
now he tells about the kittens and puppies and the fun 
they had in Kittycat Town, which is somewhere in Ani- 
mal Land.” — Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph. 


THE SANDMAN: His Songs and Rhymes. 

By Jenny Wallis. 

A choice collection of the best songs and rhymes that 
the best writers of many lands and of past decades have 
produced, attractively arranged by Jenny Wallis. 

A— 16 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES 

(trade mark) 

Each volume illustrated with six or more full page plates in 
tint. Cloth, i2mo, with decorative cover, 
per volume, 60 cents 

LIST OF TITLES 


By Mary Hazelton Wade, Mary F. 
Nixon-Roulet, Blanche McManus* 
Clara V. Winlow, Florence E.^ 
Mendel and Others 


Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little 
Our Little Cuban Cousin 
Our Little Danish Cousin 
Our Little Dutch Cousin 
Our Little Egyptian Cousin 
Our Little English Cousin 
Our Little Eskimo Cousin 
Our Little French Cousin 
Our Little German Cousin 
Our Little Grecian Cousin 
Our Little Hawaiian Cousin 
Our Little Hindu Cousin 
A — 17 


Little Hungarian Cousin 
Little Indian Cousin 
Little Irish Cousin 
Little Italian Cousin 
Little Japanese Cousin 
Little Jewish Cousin 
Little Korean Cousin 
Little Malayan (Brown) 
Cousin 

Little Mexican Cousin 
Little Norwegian Cousin 
Little Panama Cousin 
Little Persian Cousin 
Our Little Philippine Cousin 
Our Little Polish Cousin 
Our Little Porto Rican Cousin 
Our Little Portuguese Cousin 
Our Little Russian Cousin 
Our Little Scotch Cousin 
Our Little Servian Cousin 
Our Little Siamese Cousin 
Our Little Spanish Cousin 
Our Little Swedish Cousin 
Our Little Swiss Cousin 
Our Little Turkish Cousin 


African Cousin Our 

Alaskan Cousin Our 

Arabian Cousin Our 

Argentine Cousin Our 
Armenian Cousin Our 
Australian Cousin Our 
Austrian Cousin Our 
Belgian Cousin Our 

Boer Cousin 
Bohemian Cousin Our 
Brazilian Cousin Our 
Bulgarian Cousin Our 
Canadian Cousin Our 
Chinese Cousin 
Cossack Cousin 


THE PAGE COMPANY’S 


THE LITTLE COUSINS OF LONG 
AGO SERIES 

The volumes in this series describe the boys and girls 
of ancient times. 

Each small 12mo, cloth decorative , illustrated 60c. 

OUR LITTLE ATHENIAN COUSIN OF 
LONG AGO 

By J ulia Darrow Cowles. 

OUR LITTLE CARTHAGINIAN COUSIN 
OF LONG AGO 

By Clara V. Winlow. 

OUR LITTLE MACEDONIAN COUSIN OF 
LONG AGO 

By J ulia Darrow Cowles. 

OUR LITTLE NORMAN COUSIN OF LONG 
AGO 

By Evaleen Stein. 

OUR LITTLE ROMAN COUSIN OF LONG 
AGO 

By Julia Darrow Cowles. 

OUR LITTLE SAXON COUSIN OF LONG 
AGO 

By Julia Darrow Cowles. 

OUR LITTLE SPARTAN COUSIN OF LONG 
AGO 

By Julia Darrow Cowles. 

OUR LITTLE VIKING COUSIN OF LONG 
AGO 

By Charles H. L. Johnston. 

IN PREPARATION 

OUR LITTLE POMPEIIAN COUSIN OF 
LONG AGO 
A— 18 



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